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| Garbine Muguruza lets out her frustrations during an opening-round match with Katerina Siniakova at the Dubai Duty-Free Tennis Championship. |
Garbine Muguruza clinched an important match to move on at the Dubai Duty-Free Tennis Championship Tuesday. The Spaniard went three sets against Katerina Siniakova, who she figured out to get through in three sets 7-6(5), 2-6, 6-2 on center court at the Dubai Tennis Stadium. It marked her first win over the Czech in nine years and one that kept her title defense going.
The two met for the fourth time with the series lead in the hands of the Czech. Muguruza hasn’t won a match against her since 2013 and as defending champion, needed a victory to keep her title defense alive. Siniakova took their most recent wins at Wuhan in 2018 and last year in Montreal. With her doubles skills paying off in those wins, the 25-year-old wanted to keep the grip on the Spaniard.
The fourth seed got off on the right foot, scoring a break to open the match. She allowed one point to Siniakova and then again in the second to take the lead. The Czech got back to service in the third, securing her serve that turned the momentum her way. She went on to break Muguruza and back it up in the fifth to sit on a three-game streak. The Spaniard stopped her by holding serve in the sixth, but the Czech regained control and took the next two.
Muguruza caught a major break as Siniakova double-faulted twice on serve in the ninth, giving her a 40-0 lead. The Czech saved every breakpoint to force deuce, but after five breaks and a set point lost, Muguruza kept the heat on and broke back. She leveled the score at five-all, allowing her opponent one point. Siniakova responded in the 11th game, shutting the fourth seed to try and take the set.
The Spaniard denied her that chance, forcing deuce and holding the first AD point played to move into a tiebreak. It was a close race until the seventh point when she took the lead after losing the minibreak. She kept in front until she had set point at 6-5, breaking Siniakova, who lost her chance after 72 minutes of a heavy contest.
Both had a high number of unforced errors with Muguruza committing 40 and Siniakova 30. The difference-maker was the Czech’s six double faults that blew her momentum apart and found herself a set down. She made a push in the first game to place herself well against Muguruza. The Czech broke in the second and took off with the momentum that she wanted to maintain back in the opening set.
Muguruza got on the board but lost the next three to sit 5-1 down. Siniakova tried to close it out on serve in the seventh, only to see Muguruza conduct the end of the game and secure a break. The 25-year-old didn’t want any more of her opponent’s comeback, breaking the Spaniard in the eighth to end the set in 33 minutes. Despite having a lower serve percentage than Muguruza, minimizing the double faults to one and committing just ten unforced errors was a key improvement to be playing a deciding set.
Before she could make a move, Muguruza got on the board first while serving to open the third. They stayed on serve through five games, until Muguruza dug in deep in the sixth, forcing deuce with Siniakova. The two went four breaks with the Spaniard hunting down the AD point three times to gain a margin over the Czech. The tenth seed backed up the key break to lead 5-2 on another hard fight by Muguruza, earning her a chance to end the match. Siniakova felt the pressure and double-faulted, giving Muguruza a match point. She erred on her first try with one going into the net, but her second was a long return from the Czech to survive a 2 hour and 24-minute battle.
“We always play very difficult matches,” said Muguruza. “Today I was ready for it. I think the first set was a key and such a tough set, and the second set she came playing better and happy that I won this match.” The 28-year-old would go into Wednesday facing Veronika Kudermetova, who took down Victoria Azarenka in a surprising straight-set result.
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