The Spaniard faced only one of the Pliskova sisters ten times in her career but facing the other was something she never thought she’d get the chance to do. Luck would have it that Kristyna Pliskova was in her path and that she’d be the only one remaining in the tournament. Her second-seeded twin was knocked out by Jelena Ostapenko, allowing her to keep the family name on the clay courts in Paris. The win over Viktoria Kuzmova was an easy start to her run but facing the resurgent Muguruza proved a bigger challenge for the left-hander.
Muguruza got the match underway and held serve. Pliskova locked her game down just as the rain began to fall on the court. Despite the small interruption, the two continued on with the third with Pliskova getting two breakpoints. She clinched the third on a backhand error from the 11th seed as the ball fell wide of the line. The Spaniard broke back in the fourth forcing the errors from Pliskova to force deuce and lob a winner to end a rally.
Court placement and winners were the cast of Muguruza’s victory on serve in the fifth, giving her opponent a rough time on returns. A double fault didn’t help Pliskova’s efforts on serve, and with errors during rallies with Muguruza, the gap for her opponent widened. Muguruza held the seventh, giving Pliskova a single point.
The 28-year-old rallied to hold serve for the first time since the second game, the effort was late coming as the Spaniard had most of the control. A near-flawless service in the ninth, notching back to back winners for the set in 32 minutes. The 11th seed played very well with her serve above 70 percent and outscoring Pliskova on winners while minimizing the unforced errors. With more momentum needed, the 28-year-old Czech needed to be strong from her offense.
A hold of serve was the right path taken for the left-hander, but consolidating a break was out of the question from the Spaniard. She notched a serve to love before digging into another battle against Pliskova’s serve. They went to deuce for the second time in the set, playing six breaks where the Czech saved an AD point before getting hers locked for the lead. A service winner leveled Muguruza at two-all before breaking Pliskova which was the beginning of the end for the Czech.
She couldn’t keep the unforced errors down, leading to Muguruza’s ascent of dominance to hold serve in the sixth. Another easy break gave her the comfort of serving for the match which came on three match points from an ace. The nail in Pliskova’s coffin came on a sliced winner to complete the victory in one hour and eight minutes.
“I had to prepare because it’s the first time this year that I played a lefty so that’s interesting,” Muguruza said. “I had to be ready and with this temperature be super active.” She’ll bring more of that activity when she faces American Danielle Collins on Saturday.
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