Muguruza downplays being Open favorite
Reigning Wimbledon champion Garbine Muguruza has never gone beyond the second round in the U.S. Open, so it’s no wonder she is surprised many are touting her as the early favorite to hoist the trophy.
The Spaniard, seeded No. 3, has played the U.S. Open four times and has only reached the second round the last two years. Nevertheless, she arrived in New York with more momentum than the other top tennis players, having won her second major at Wimbledon and scoring the Cincinnati hardcourt title a little over a week ago.
“Coming to the U.S. Open and having a dark past, maybe, in the results, I keep it with low expectations,” Muguruza said after a
6-0, 6-3 first-round victory against American Varvara Lepchenko on Monday. “(I’m) happy that this first round went my way and looking forward to actually match my best result here.”
In a field missing Serena Williams, who is pregnant, and Victoria Azarenka, embroiled in a custody battle for her infant son, Leo, in California, Muguruza, 23, seems a natural choice for favored status.
Nevertheless, winning Wimbledon and the U.S. Open backto-back has been tough. Since the advent of the Open era in 1968, nine players have achieved the Wimbledon-U.S. Open combo an overall 17 times.
The last player to accomplish the feat was Serena Williams in
2002 and 2012. Muguruza’s best suggestion is to look elsewhere for the eventual U.S. Open champion, though she couldn’t offer anyone specific.
“Who would I think is the favorite?” she said, rhetorically. “Well, to be honest, I think the top players. We are all very close, very equal. There are going to be some surprises, as always.”
When it was pointed out she’s one of those top players, she chuckled and relented a bit, say- ing, “I know that. At the end, the one that plays better is going to win.”
Six-time U.S. Open champion Chris Evert, who understands what winning in the frenetic pace of New York takes, isn’t absolute in her opinion Muguruza is the player to beat in the women’s competition.
“I don’t know how you can pick anybody in the women’s,” said Evert, an ESPN analyst, on a conference call last week. “On paper, it’s Muguruza in her current form. How is she going to deal with the pressure? In the past, she’s been a little fragile mentally, but at the same time, it seems, on paper, you’d have to pick her.”
To bolster the snugness at the top of the women’s game, there are eight players, including Muguruza, who mathematically could emerge from the Open with the No. 1 ranking: No. 1 Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic, No. 2 Simona Halep of Romania, No. 4 Elina Svitolina of the Ukraine, No. 5 Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark, No. 7 Johanna Konta of Great Britain, No. 8 Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia and No. 9 Venus Williams of the USA.
For Muguruza to claim the top ranking for the first time, she will need to reach at least the Round of 16, but that doesn’t guarantee her ascendance.
“It is going to be a fun tourna- ment, I guess, because there is a lot of movement,” Muguruza said. “A lot of things can happen. I just think it’s great. It’s great for the fans, for the people who are going to watch who is winning, who is not.”
Muguruza is in the hunt for her sixth career title — and her third Grand Slam tournament championship. She won her first major in last year’s French Open.
Here in New York City, Muguruza is back working with her regular coach, Sam Sumyk, who sat out Wimbledon while awaiting the birth of his first child. Fellow Spaniard Conchita Martinez, the 1994 Wimbledon champion and Spain’s Davis and Fed Cup captain, did a winning job of filling in.
Whether Muguruza will play well enough to become the U.S. Open champion is yet to be determined. But her 63-minute, first-round victory against No. 64 Lepchenko certainly provided encouragement.
“Being in a Grand Slam, doesn’t matter what you did (there) before, it’s always nervous and excitement,” she said. “I always come very full of hope here to try to make a good tournament.
“Even (though) before it didn’t really happen, every year new page, and just looking forward to see what happens.”