Muguruza survives scare on grass

FORMER Wimbledon finalist Garbine Muguruza (pix) suffered a scare before taking the first early steps that may help her forget her ordeal in losing her French Open title 10 days ago.

The sixth seeded Spaniard was at times in serious difficulties during her survival by 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 against Elizaveta Kulichkova, a Russian qualifier, in the first round of the Aegon Classic, a Wimbledon warm-up tournament.

Kulichkova is slender of build but packs a tremendous wallop with her ground strokes on both sides, and had also had three qualifying matches to help her get used to the grass.

She frequently forced Muguruza to scramble and plunge in different directions, unable to impose her elegant game on the rallie. When Kulichkova broke back in the final set with a chance to serve for 5-5 the match could have gone in any direction.

“I often felt like a rookie out there,” admitted Muguruza. “It was like a cat fight. She’s very powerful, but I kept my concentration and spirit and I turned things around.”

It had taken Muguruza four or five days to start afresh after her loss in Paris to Kristina Mladenovic in an atmosphere that had caused her to make strong criticisms of the hostile crowd.

She next plays Alison Riske, the world No. 45 from the United States who is at her best on grass, and has previously reached the semifinal of this tournament.

Earlier Kvitova, the two-time Wimbledon champion, made a winning comeback to her beloved grass with a 6-2, 6-3 2 win over her fellow Czech Tereza Smitkova.

If Kvitova has recovered enough of her former brilliance to reach the semifinals, her path will have been smoothed by the exit of another top 10 player in her half.

This time it happened with a defeat, not one of the tournament’s many withdrawals, with the third-seeded Dominika Cibulkova failing to convert two second set match points and losing 5-7,7-6(9-7), 7-5 to Lucie Safarova, the former top 10 Czech. – AFP