Garbine Muguruza saw the fire in her game doused at the Championships Wimbledon Friday. After two quick wins, it was Ons Jabeur, who had the moxie to fight her through every game and come through in three sets 5-7, 6-3, 6-2 on center court at the All England Tennis Club.
The two met back in Hobart in January 2020 for the first time. The Spaniard got the best of the Tunisian, giving her a shot at doing so again. Muguruza was on fire on the grass courts of SW19, allowing six-game wins to her opponents in the first two rounds. During the first week of the tournament, the rain hadn’t affected her pace as she finished her conquest before it could fall. Facing Jabeur this year saw a different output as the 26-year-old grabbed her maiden WTA title before the slam. With magnificent work on grass, her skills had the ability to knock down the former champion.
Muguruza opened with a break to love of the Tunisian before her service game was challenged in the second. Jabeur pressed the Spaniard with a breakpoint for herself before deuce was forced by the server. The 11th seed denied her another one before she locked down the service on the second break. The 21st seed followed suit with a hold of serve, but her attack of Muguruza’s second serve opened a chance to level in the fourth. Muguruza answered to force deuce and hold back the 26-year-old for a 3-1 lead.
Jabeur held in the fifth and added a break of the Spaniard to level the score through six games. Backing up the break on serve in the seventh gave the Tunisian a 4-3 hold of Muguruza, who was on a three-game slide. She ended the offensive run of her opponent by maintaining service in the eighth that leveled them once again. The 11th seed scored a key break that put her in a position to serve for the set with Jabeur making small mistakes.
Muguruza slipped and fell twice in the tenth that led to Jabeur gaining breakpoints. The 27-year-old attempted to fight them off and achieved deuce, but it was her opponent still holding the reins. Jabeur produced four more breakpoints through the game that saw them play out 13 points in the longest competition of the set. Muguruza managed to break back in the 11th, hoping to avoid a tiebreak and make her second try to close the set out.
Reaching two set points, Muguruza comfortably had her serve in check and took the set in 56 minutes. Each one did better than the other on serve with Muguruza besting from the first and Jabeur from the second. It remained even with the Tunisian making just a little bit more errors in the set.
She opened the second with a hold of serve against Muguruza, who was set to push the 21st seed. They remained on serve through seven games until the eighth when Jabeur stayed composed to go for the break. Muguruza made a critical error that brought a breakpoint for the Tunisian, who went on to take a 5-3 lead. She served for the set in the ninth but trailed 0-40. Jabeur found a way to force deuce and reached a set point where a long ball return from Muguruza clinched a decider into play after 46 minutes.
The 21st seed was the better player when scoring points from the first and second serves. Playing from the net was a comfortable position for Jabeur, who tallied ten winners and only six unforced errors. The Tunisian had Muguruza rattled when she broke her to open the third set. The 26-year-old consolidated the break with a hold, taking a 2-0 stance. The Spaniard tried to avoid going down a double break, but the effort put in by Jabeur made it so difficult. Jabeur produced six breakpoints, but Muguruza denied her each time before her fight paid off to hold serve.
Jabeur held to make it 3-1 but it took all the energy possible when it came to fighting the Spaniard on serve. The 21st seed brought up a breakpoint at 40-15, but Muguruza fought back to force deuce. She was once again fighting to hold from her end but struggled to keep Jabeur back. After four breaks and three more chances for the Tunisian to break, she captured the break on Muguruza to go up 4-1.
The 26-year-old found some comfort knowing that she had Muguruza down by a sizable margin. Her short attempt to break back failed as an error made it 5-1 and Jabeur playing for the match. Muguruza refused to give the win on serve, holding her off with brilliant shots. The 21st seed had her chance to serve for a place in the round of 16. The nerves got to Jabeur, who had a match point, and went to the back of the court to vomit. She quickly recovered to play on deuce, reach a second match point and play a long rally to win on a winner that gave her the big victory in 2 hours and 25 minutes.
No comments:
Post a Comment