THE BIGGER THE BETTER

Wimbledon champion Garbine Muguruza talks about thriving in high-pressure matches and building upon her summer of success

Wimbledon champion Garbine Muguruza, who was named last week as the Women’s Tennis Association’s (WTA) player of the year, is a firm believer in Billie Jean King’s maxim that “pressure is a privilege.”

Ask Muguruza if she likes going into tournaments as the favourite and the 24-yearold Spaniard is adamant. “It’s a great thing to have,” she said. “That pressure everywhere you go, that responsibility, I think it’s good to have it. It’s worse if you are there and nobody expects you to win.”

Nevertheless, those are not the sort of sentiments you would have expected to hear from Muguruza before this summer.

Until her Wimbledon triumph in July, she had a reputation as a player who could occasionally rise to the big occasion but struggled to live up to her billing thereafter.

The tennis world at large had been aware of Muguruza’s exceptional talent ever since she beat four higher-ranked players to reach the 2015 Wimbledon final when