Garbiñe Muguruza Wins Wimbledon 2017

Garbiñe Muguruza (click to enlarge)

Big stages bring out the best in Garbiñe Muguruza. A few weeks ago in Eastbourne, the 23-year old Spaniard/Venezuelan was beaten 6-1 6-0 by Barbora Strycova. I honestly don’t think those types of losses bother Garbi much at all. She seems to live for the large spotlight. In the largest spotlight in the sport, a Wimbledon final, against a 5-time champion and crowd favorite Venus Williams, Muguruza captured her second Major title with a 7-5 6-0 win over the 37-year old American. Garbi becomes the only player ever to defeat both Williams sisters in a Major singles final, her first being last year’s win over Serena in the Roland Garros championship match. Muguruza might not be the kind of player that racks up 40 or 50 career singles titles (she has 4 now), but if she finishes with 16 singles titles and 8 of them are Majors, who cares?

Garbiñe Muguruza (click to enlarge)

The championship turned on one key game. Venus was up 5-4 in the first set with two set points at 15-40 on Garbiñe’s serve. Had Williams won either of those set points, who knows if Muguruza comes back. Instead, Garbi fought both set points off and eventually won that game. Her forehand had been shaky early in the match, but on the first set point when it mattered most, it was rock solid as Venus repeatedly picked on it. She didn’t lose another game the rest of the match, reeling off the final 9 games of the match to become a Wimbledon champion.

Garbiñe Muguruza (click to enlarge)

With her coach Sam Sumyk not here, Muguruza was coached by the last Spanish woman to win Wimbledon, Conchita Martinez. Martinez also beat a 37-year old legend in 1994 to win her title, Martina Navratilova. We’ll see what decisions are made concerning who coaches Muguruza moving forward. We’ll also see if Garbi stats winning more of the week to week events on the tour calendar. But as I said before, who cares? If she goes on paying her best on the biggest stages and winning a Major every year, that sounds pretty good to me.