Muguruza limps out
dubai — Leaving her legions of Spanish fans with broken hearts, French Open champion Garbine Muguruza limped out of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships due to pain in her left Achilles.
The fifth seed never looked comfortable in the first set against Kateryna Bondarenko as the Ukrainian quickly took a 4-0 lead. Muguruza did get a break of serve in the fifth game, but didn’t feel alright physically and decided to retire.
The23-year-oldSpaniardblamed it on last week’s Doha tournament where she had to play two matches in a single day due to the rains.
“When I finished in Doha, that day because of the rain, a lot of people played two matches, including me. The second one was very tough, and I remember that as soon as I went to my room after the match, I started to have pain in my left Achilles,” Muguruza revealed at her post-match press conference in Dubai on Tuesday.
“The next morning was even more painful. I have carried this injury since that day. And here, I have been training on and off because of the pain. Some days it was a little bit better, some days it was a little bit worse. It was just hard for me to serve, especially, and to move on the court,” she added.
Muguruza said she was really disappointed at missing out on a chance to go deep in a tournament she loves playing.
“I am obviously very disappointed now. After Doha I came here and had more days to rest, but I was carrying the problems from Doha.
“So I’m quite disappointed because these are very important tournaments, Doha and Dubai, especially this time of the year.
“My next stop is Indian Wells, and I will try my best to be ready there, you know.
“But I will go home before that to get ready and to treat my Achilles, or I don’t know exactly what it is. I just need to clean that thing. I don’t
I’m quite disappointed because these are very important tournaments Garbine Muguruza
want to have any pain. I don’t want to go on the court with pain.
“In Brisbane I had pain. At the Australian Open I had pain. So I’m tired of feeling that. I want to maybe prevent such things in future.”
Injuries have played a part in her failure to maintain her French Open form.
“It’s very hard when you have pain. Obviously I want to compete, so I’m going to go on the court trying to see if it goes better. I don’t know, sometimes when you are out there and you get excited, you kind of forget sometimes,” she said.
“It’s very hard, because in the past I went to the court and I suffered the worst injury, and then I have to take two weeks to recover from that. I’d rather prevent that.”
rituraj@khaleejtimes.com