Muguruza climbs back after Kilimanjaro feat
Spaniard with two major wins has rediscovered her drive with an epic trip, writes Simon Briggs
With her head held high, and shoulders pinned back, Garbine Muguruza possesses the queenliest walk in tennis. But does she really want to reign?
Today’s final against 21-year-old whizzkid Sofia Kenin should give us an answer.
Muguruza stands at 6ft, with long levers and flawless technique. And when she won Wimbledon, 2½ years ago, it looked like she had cracked it. Compared to doughty, counterpunching rivals such as Simona Halep and Angelique Kerber, her theoretical ceiling is far higher. But the crown just would not settle. Within a few minutes of lifting the Venus Rosewater Dish, Muguruza was already talking about a “love-hate relationship with tennis”.
Her partnership with Sam Sumyk, the coach she infamously told to “f--- off ” during a coaching visit in Miami, was equally tempestuous. Few were surprised when they split in July. Yet she won only one more match before the end of last season.
Muguruza needed a reboot. Or perhaps a hiking boot. In the off-season, she set off to climb Mount Kilimanjaro. “We crossed waterfalls, icy rivers, caves, cliffs, and the hardest: frozen nights,” she wrote on social media. “At some point, I was crying when my guide told me to not look down at the 300-metre free fall.”
Last week in Melbourne Park, Muguruza was asked for more information about a trip which ended in 22 straight hours of hiking. “You’re climbing that mountain and it’s only you,” she said. “You learn a little bit about you, how you handle it, the mental strength. I really liked the experience – to see myself in the middle of nowhere and just having one clear thought: to keep climbing.”
Could Muguruza finally be regenerating into “Mugu-ruthless”: the upgraded, dependable version? Before arriving in Melbourne, she had reached the last four in Shenzhen and the last eight in Hobart. The numbers reflect well on new coach Conchita Martinez, who also steered her to that 2017 Wimbledon title as a locum.
“She has the right attitude at the moment,” Martinez said yesterday. “I have seen this look before when she’s been playing really good tennis. I like how focused she is.”
Martinez also acknowledged the benefits of Kilimanjaro’s thin air. “It’s super cold, you can barely rest. You had to overcome your fears and be strong to continue. She felt great about doing that. Not everybody can reach the summit [but] she was stubborn enough.”
If she plays at her peak today – in her fourth major final – Muguruza should have too much for 5ft 7in
Kenin. Yet if she wobbles mentally it could be her opponent’s coronation day. Kenin may have grown up in sunny Florida, but her Russian ancestry comes through in her steely refusal to blink.
Kenin’s father Alex, who emigrated to the United States in 1987, was asked yesterday why so many tennis stars had a Russian background. “The root is tough and bitter,” he said, in a line that might have come from Dostoevsky. “What’s around it is decoration. There is something inside.
“She didn’t experience all the sacrifices that we had to go through, thank God,” he said. “When we got to the USA I had to work in a car service at night, go to computer school in the morning, and drive in New York without speaking English. It’s amazing the things you do when you need to survive. She knows about them. I think it gives her some toughness.”
Kenin will play the scrappy terrier in this match-up, worrying away at the thoroughbred Labrador. Her ferocity is unrelenting; she has no off switch.
Kenin is not just hungry for a fight, but positively ravenous. Whereas Muguruza’s appetite has been inconsistent in the past. The result, with any luck, could be a banquet of tennis.
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