Garbine Muguruza got a much needed win in her return to the sport in a couple of weeks at the Toray Pan Pacific Open Monday. The Spaniard put a lot of good work to take down Belinda Bencic in straight sets with a 6-2, 6-4 result on center court at the Arena Tachikawa Tachihi
The two reconvened their series in the same tournament three years later with Bencic taking down the Spaniard in their one and only meeting. Muguruza took a big hit to her status in the ranks where she fell below the top ten with her second round loss at the US Open. Bencic lost earlier but didn’t lose significant ground as her opponent. With the previous win in her memory, the Swiss player hoped to start her Asian run with a great start. Muguruza focused on regrouping fast as she eyed a quick improvement.
She quickly matched Bencic with a quick service hold to get through with the second game. It was a fast pace that had her zeroed in on earning a break with a chance on deuce. A second straight forehand error gave the sixth seed the AD point which was clinched on Bencic’s first double fault. She tried to make up for it in the fourth down 0-40 but couldn’t reel it in entirely. The deficit for the 21 year old increased with her double faults as she made her third in the fifth. A challenge that she hoped would stand against Muguruza was found to be out. She handed the double break to the world number 14 who was cruising along. Vlado Platenik came out to try and bring Bencic together and recover lost ground going forward.
She put together a strong break to cut into Muguruza’s lead but holding her off was another challenging task. The 24 year old answered in the seventh keeping herself ahead on the score that left Bencic with little to work on. She fell to another double break which set her opponent to serve for the set. While it took a little more effort than any of the previous games, Muguruza made good on her mission to put the set in her name and be ahead of Bencic after 29 minutes. She served 74 percent with 16 of 20 points won on the first serve. It was too much for the Swiss star to handle as she couldn’t get up to speed serving below 50 percent on both sides. Her return game had suffered enough to try and change the course of the match.
She didn’t want that to happen again and made a statement from her offense to dictate how the set was going to flow. She soon found herself with a 2-1 lead over the Spaniard that sent Sam Sumyk out to give Muguruza some pointers on how to counter. It was helped by a significant change in Bencic’s serve that handed a break over losing a second straight. It forced her to call out Platenik to try and remedy quickly before it all slipped away from her. She put together a defense that kept her in a stalemate on the scoreboard where they reached the eighth game still in a tie.
It was the ninth that saw Muguruza spike on aggression to attack Bencic and steal another break that gave her a chance for a straight sets win on serve. An error got Muguruza on the board before she landed an ace to push Bencic to the edge. On a final challenge from the Swiss star, she witnessed her tournament come to a close as a great return from the Spaniard gave her the victory after 1 hour and 24 minutes.
“It felt like a very difficult first round,” Muguruza said after the match. “I’m excited that I’m into the second round. Belinda is a very good player but today I got it and its good.”
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