Garbine Muguruza had a force that was too much to handle at the Miami Open Saturday night. The world number three dispatched Christina McHale quickly with an offense that gave her a 6-2, 6-1 straight sets win on Stadium Court at Crandon Park Tennis Center. The American had no winners in the match that was nearly one sided to send the Spaniard into the fourth round. Muguruza remains the top three seed left in the tournament.
A fourth meeting came to life for the American and Spaniard by sheer coincidence as McHale’s victory over Barbora Strycova led to a pivotal third round test for the American. They faced one another in the second round here last year which went a wild three sets. With the world number three getting a pass in the second round as well, her time playing on court would begin with McHale who was more than ready to have another battle with Muguruza.
The American started with two double faults but managed to stay ahead on the score. She watched Muguruza come together to force deuce but held together to hold the serve. Muguruza bested her opponent’s opening game holding McHale by two points in the process. Just as the Spaniard hunted down a break chance, the American denied her that chance to keep the set on serve. They spanned four games before Muguruza found her moment to strike and gained the lead. Her dominance produced another game that increased her margin over McHale remaining firm in her quest to win the set.
She had full dictation of the game creating problems for McHale for a 5-2 hold. The American took a conference with coach telling her to change the pace of what Muguruza was outputting in the set. He mentioned making small adjustments were necessary to get her back in the set with the opportunity back in Muguruza’s hands to shut the door on her. It was made to go one way as the world number three reached set point winning on an unforced error that completed the set in 30 minutes. Muguruza nailed 13 of 15 on the first serve and overall better return game than her opponent.
The winning streak of the third seed continued as she broke McHale to begin the second set. Her tactics forced McHale to rack up the errors on her forehand that led to a 2-0 hole. The struggling American gave signs of not giving in to Muguruza’s dominance by forcing deuce in the third. her efforts paid off after seven breaks where a wide return from the third seed got the 25-year-old on the board.
Muguruza returned to serve but had troubles on the first serve that got her into trouble. Two doubles faults came in the game by the Spaniard helping McHale to get into contention. The third seed rallied to make good of the AD point rally making it a difficult return for the American that resulted in her 3-1 lead. Having picked up where she left off, the third seed went back to her winning ways winning the next two sitting one game down of the match.
McHale was on the edge of defeat but had signs of battling to stay alive. The errors were still a big deal for her offense as she handed Muguruza match point. It was all over after a short rally where the American smashed one long of the line completing her demise in one hour and nine minutes. “I tried to be concentrated all the time,” Muguruza said to Andrew Krasny after the match. “not let her come back on the score and I’m always super pumped up when I play in Miami because I have all these Latin fans and I never get to see them.”
She’ll get the chance to go further but will face Sloane Stephens on Monday under the lights. “It’s gonna be a very interesting match,” she said. “I’m playing another American so you know I look forward for all these top matches against tough opponents.”
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