Garbine Muguruza remains firm in her opening round Australian Open win

Garbine Muguruza waves to the crowd at Rod Laver Arena after her win against Clara Burel at the Australian Open. 

Garbine Muguruza had a challenge on her hands but handled the situation at the Australian Open Tuesday. Clara Burel didn’t make it easy for the third seed, who managed to keep the French star behind in her 6-3, 6-4 win on Rod Laver Arena at Melbourne Park. It was her tenth straight first-round win in the slam in a heavily even battle on the court. 

The Spaniard spent a lot of time during the offseason to prepare for the run in Australia. Despite only having two matches in Sydney, the third seed prepared herself for making another strong run in Melbourne. This was Burel’s third appearance at the slam and starting on the big stage was not the only problem she would have to deal with. 

The 20-year-old French player traded off points with Muguruza until the third seed forced deuce. Burel held her end and secured the win to start off on the right foot. The Spaniard made it look easy on serve, putting together a shutout of Burel to set the tone from her side of the court. Burel wasn’t changing her strategy of playing hard against the former world number one while maintaining her hold of serve. 

Each of them had two service games locked but on Burel’s third, Muguruza got aggressive and produced the breakpoints. With some quick reactive returns from both sides, it was a crosscourt smash that gave the third seed the break and a chance to double up. Just when it looked as if Muguruza’s net-front shots were going to give her the easy edge, throwing the ball into the sun became an issue. It led her to a rare double fault followed by an error into the net that brought up deuce for Burel. The French player waited for her best moment to strike and set up for a cross-court winner to break back. 

With the situation tight between the two, Muguruza changed up her strategy and fiercely went after Burel in the seventh for the double break to love. She backed it up with a great hold in the eighth and held the French youngster to nil ending 35 minutes. 

Muguruza opened the second with a shutout and tried to go for another break of the 20-year-old. Burel struck back to force deuce on serve and battled through three breaks while fending off the Spaniard’s opportunities. Despite the lost chance early, the third seed held serve and dug in against what Burel was bringing from the racket to break her for the 3-1 stand. She made it a three-game gap, holding her opponent to a single point, but she wasn’t out of trouble yet. 

Burel came fighting back in the hopes of making it count in the shape of a decider against the former world number one. Muguruza overcame a deficit in the seventh where she forced deuce and took the only AD point. With a chance to take the match in play, Burel had to do everything to fend off the match point by any means. When one came for the Spaniard, she denied her to force deuce. Through four breaks, the 20-year-old saved two more before shutting it down on her second AD point. 

Muguruza wanted nothing to do with a tiebreak or a third set and dug deep to create match points. On her fifth match point and second of the game, the third seed won it on a final error from Burel to complete her straight-sets win in 1 hour and 28 minutes.