Gritty Muguruza aiming to get battle hardened

Spaniard Garbine Muguruza hitting a forehand against Coco Gauff at the Italian Open yesterday. She won the 2hr 27min battle.
Spaniard Garbine Muguruza hitting a forehand against Coco Gauff at the Italian Open yesterday. She won the 2hr 27min battle. PHOTO: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

ROME • Former French Open champion Garbine Muguruza is not afraid of playing as many "tough" matches as possible, after beating American teenage sensation Coco Gauff to advance to the Italian Open last 16 yesterday.

The Spaniard, 26, outlasted her 16-year-old opponent 7-6 (7-3), 3-6, 6-3 after surviving a scare in the second set.

"It was a tough match, I'm looking forward for tough matches," said Muguruza, the 2016 Roland Garros champion and two-time Major winner. "I am just thinking to leave from Rome hopefully with the trophy or playing as many matches as possible, US Open was short (after exiting in the second round). Just being here (in Rome) and enjoying as much as I can."

She added of Gauff: "I think she's here, doesn't matter how old she is. For me I'm not thinking about that, I think she's a great competitor."

After claiming the opening set, Muguruza could do little to stop Gauff from taking the second set.

But the teenager had three successive double faults in the third, which changed the course of the match. In total, Gauff had 15 double faults compared to Muguruza's nine.

The ninth seed moved to the last 16 in Rome for the fourth time after the 2hr 27min clash and will face either Irina-Camelia Begu or seventh seed Johanna Konta in the third round.

In the men's draw, Rafael Nadal, in his first match in over six months, swept aside fellow Spaniard Pablo Carreno Busta on Wednesday to reach the third round. The nine-time Rome winner came through 6-1, 6-1 against 18th-ranked Carreno Busta, a recent semi-finalist at the US Open.

"It was a perfect start for me. It was solid, good shots on the forehand and backhand. I didn't expect to play that well," Nadal said.

"Maybe Pablo was a little bit tired from a great tournament in New York, but thinking about myself, I played a very solid match and very serious and doing a lot of things very well. So very happy."

The world No. 2 has not played since winning in Acapulco at the end of February, opting to skip the US hard-court swing because of coronavirus concerns.

Nadal, a 12-time French Open winner, is the second seed behind world No. 1 Novak Djokovic in the tune-up for the final Grand Slam of the season at Roland Garros on Sept 27.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE


ITALIAN OPEN

Men: StarHub Ch211,

Women: Ch201, 6pm.

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on September 18, 2020, with the headline Gritty Muguruza aiming to get battle hardened. Subscribe