Garbine Muguruza was a runaway train that couldn’t be stopped at the Yarra Valley Classic Saturday. In her 401st career WTA win, the sixth seed dominated Marketa Vondrousova 6-1, 6-0 on Margaret Court Arena at Melbourne Park.
The two never met before, making it a big moment for the Czech, who had a big obstacle standing in her way. The world number 21 went three sets against last year’s French Open finalist Nadia Podoroska. The Argentine didn’t give Vondrousova an easy move into the final four and neither would Muguruza. In a state of revenge, the Spaniard got her revenge from the Australian Open final last season, beating down Sofia Kenin. With her consistency proving well through three matches and not dropping a set, the 27-year-old would focus her attack on the Czech.
Muguruza came out blazing with a serve to love that opened the set, taking less than a minute to do so. Vondrousova battled the Spaniard on serve in the second, but despite her best efforts, she couldn’t contain the power of her opponent. Muguruza continued to hold serve comfortably, before taking it to the Czech. She answered with a strong positioning on the court, reacting well to Muguruza’s return that helped her hold in the fourth.
The sixth seed didn’t let the short loss of momentum take effect and came through with rage in the fifth, scoring another serve to love. The Spaniard racked up the break of serve in the sixth before serving for the set in the seventh, she notched her third serve to love that completed the first set in 29 minutes with Vondrousova returning the ball into the net. It was her 10th unforced error committed. With only 15 points scored against Muguruza who had 10 winners, the momentum was hard to put the brakes on.
The 27-year-old broke her to love showing no signs of weakness as she marched on. Vondrousova thought she had a chance in the second with a sign of a break chance lurking. Muguruza closed the door on service, taking a 2-0 lead. The Czech suffered another double fault, that opened the door for the sixth seed to take action, gaining breakpoints, the Spaniard let two slip away before capturing her sixth consecutive game.
Vondrousova tried to bring some tricks in response to returning against Muguruza but her efforts fell apart. The sixth seed continued her powerful groundstrokes against the eighth seed, taking a 4-0 stand. Muguruza marched along, taking another service game from Vondrousova who was at a loss when it came to putting the brakes on her opponent. With the balls to serve for the match, the unstoppable Muguruza let Vondrousova make the mistakes. She had three match points, in which the Czech made a stop to one but the other from the forehand caught its mark to end a dominant match that took 50 minutes.
Muguruza was relentless with her accuracy on the forehand scoring a total of 55 points to Vondrousova’s 24. The Spaniard had just 19 winners and on double fault in one of her best performances of the year to date. “I think I played well today,” said Muguruza. “My serve was working in the right moments and I felt like at the beginning of the match that I could take control of the point.”
She’ll hope to take the title before Monday’s first Grand Slam as she faces world number one Ashleigh Barty who carried the home advantage. “It’s always good to play the top players, especially the world number one. We had tough matches so I’m expecting another battle.”
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