Garbine Muguruza had a quick and scary time on centre court at the Qatar Total Open Thursday. The fourth seed went from shutting down Sorana Cirstea to playing to keep the match in straight sets. Despite a late charge that nearly put a third into play, the Spaniard managed to win 6-0, 6-4 at the Khalifa International Tennis Complex.
The series lead leaned in favor of the world number four who got through well in the second round against Ying Ying Duan. With two victories last season over the Romanian, Muguruza’s chances of making the quarterfinals determined her level of readiness. With Conchita Martinez joining her coaching staff, the 24-year-old has her eyes set on maintaining a course to level herself in position with becoming world number one again. Cirstea defeated Australian Open semifinalist Elise Mertens on Wednesday gaining a chance to make her third attempt against the Spaniard count to continue at Doha.
She found herself down 2-0 early to Muguruza who gained the break before consolidating with a hold of serve. She continued on her march to dominate Cirstea and achieve the double break and a triple to lead 5-0. The set quickly came to a finish in 22 minutes as Muguruza landed an ace on triple set point making a huge statement on court. She served at 72 percent with five winners and only one unforced error. Her dictation of the set beat down Cirstea who was rattled with over a dozen errors and just three winners. She gave her opponent just eight points in the set which was a massive achievement.
She tried to make something of the first game of the second set but Muguruza held firm to get the break and her seventh consecutive game win. After a hold in the second, the Romanian somehow found a way to hold her own against the world number four and end the dominance for the moment. Muguruza picked up from her one loss regaining control of the situation to win two straight sitting 4-1 in the set.
The Romanian was on the edge of defeat playing to stay alive with the Spaniard up 5-1. With a lot of effort on her part, the 27-year-old held serve making Muguruza earn the win herself. She saw a challenge from Cirstea to make it tough and did so forcing deuce. It didn’t last longer than a break as she achieved a second straight win to hang on and threaten the set from the world number four.
Cirstea added another hold of serve to the board that put Muguruza in trouble to play out a third set if she couldn’t lock it down in the tenth. With better focus in her game, the fourth seed got the job done achieving three match points to end her late struggle in one hour and four minutes.
“I think I played well in the first set and in the second she came up much better with a high level,” Muguruza said during her on court interview. “I made a few mistakes and there we go the match was almost equal.” “It’s part of the game,” she said about what happened in the second set. “I like to feel the pressure and its good. It’s tough when you lose but I like it.”
She’ll try to keep her winning ways together face the winner between Caroline Garcia and qualifier Anna Blinkova on Friday.
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