DUBAI // It is perhaps unsurprising someone who spent the formative years of their life in one of the most dangerous cities in the world would develop a certain fearlessness.
Garbine Muguruza, born in Caracas to a Venezuelan mother and a Spanish father, plays tennis with bravery, bravado and unbending self-belief.
The world No 24, mixing powerful serves with aggressive net play, is building a reputation as a formidable opponent with a bright future ahead of her.
This week, she was the only unseeded player to reach the quarter-finals of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships.
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On Thursday, she saw off the challenge of Carla Suarez Navarro, her best friend and doubles partner, 6-7, 6-3, 6-3 to secure a semi-final showdown with Karolina Pliskova.
At 21, Muguruza has plenty of room for improvement. The same gallant play that has already this week resulted in wins over Jelena Jankovic and Agnieszka Radwanska – seeded 12th and fifth, respectively – can work against her, too.
Against Suarez Navarro, she repeatedly overcomplicated matters, playing aggressively at inopportune moments.
Chasing the lead in the first set, she tried a volleyed backhand and found the net. A defter shot would have sufficed.
As one acerbic analyst commented: “She goes for power – and when that doesn’t work she goes for more power.”
Yet the foundations are there.
On her way to last year’s French Open quarter-finals, she defeated world No 1 Serena Williams in straight sets, 6-2, 6-2. It was Williams’s heaviest defeat in grand slam play.
Last week, representing Spain in the Fed Cup, she beat world No 3 Simona Halep in front of the Romanian’s home crowd. After yesterday’s victory, her record for 2015 reads 11 wins, two losses.
“You get more mentally strong when you see that every time you play with top-10 players, you win or you make them suffer,” Muguruza said. “So this is my goal: to play against these kind of players with respect, be aggressive, and try and win the match. I have been working really hard to be more consistent, and now I’m starting to get the pay-off.
“I have a game in which I have to play really aggressive, strong and deep, so I have a lot of options to miss the ball. And I know that. But my game is to win more points than I lose. I don’t care if I suddenly miss three balls, because I’m thinking, ‘OK, next one I’m going to win’. It’s part of my game. Sometimes I miss a lot, but I’m just calm.”
By way of an example: Against Suarez Navarro, Muguruza won her first service game to love but was broken at the next opportunity. By the end of the two hours and 20 minutes, she had hit 10 aces and seven double-faults.
“In the beginning, when you have to play aggressive and you start to miss, you’re like: ‘I have to play more short’,” the Spaniard said. “But, with time, you see that to win important matches all the great players cannot be putting the ball inside and running.”
Much of Muguruza’s game can be linked back to her upbringing. Having lived in the notoriously violent Venezuelan capital until the age of six, her parents told her to “always be brave and never be scared”. It was a mantra she carried into tennis after picking up a racquet for the first time aged three or four.
“We went to a country club one day and there were tennis courts there,” she said. “My parents said: ‘Oh, you can start to play tennis. They are having fun’. So me and my brother started to play, and now look.”
Look now, and what greets the eye is a strapping six-footer whose first serve yesterday reached speeds as high as 197kph and who appears comfortable volleying from anywhere on the court.
Pliskova, today’s opponent, sits only six places above her in the WTA world rankings, suggesting a place in tomorrow’s final is well within reach – not that Muguruza speaks of such tangible targets.
“My goal is just to go to the court every time and try to win the match,” she said. “Be consistent and do not have injuries. I just want to be healthy and try to improve every day. It’s not such a big goal I have, but it’s very important.”
gmeenaghan@thenational.ae
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