The Curious Case of Garbiñe Muguruza - Issue #24
Garbiñe Muguruza is one of the most recognizable names in tennis, but she finds herself struggling to do what she does best - win matches. Can she find the form that made her a champion?
Written by Dove Sallow
Garbiñe Muguruza is one of the most prominent names in women's tennis. The Spaniard has won 2 Grand Slams, reached #1 in the world, and won the WTA Finals as recently as 2021. But her career has been erratic these last few years. She's reached the greatest heights in the sport, but has gone through these weird patches where she struggles to find confidence and form. This week, we're looking at the curious case of Garbiñe Muguruza.
Muguruza's game is aggressive in every aspect. Standing 6 feet tall, she's a natural-born athlete with the ability to dictate play with every shot she hits. Although she represents Spain, her game is drastically different from the majority of Spanish tennis players. She doesn't like to defend/counterpunch and she doesn't get much topspin on her shots. Muguruza's groundstrokes are explosive and flat. They penetrate through the court and allow Garbiñe to take time away from her opponents. While both her forehand and backhand are powerful, her forehand is the side known to break down. The Spaniard's forehand grip is technically a semi-western, but it's leaning pretty close to a western grip. Because of this extreme grip, Garbiñe has to be timing the ball perfectly and needs to make sure she's not late. If she doesn't make contact with the ball out in front of her, the errors start to fly. Her backhand has long been touted as one of the best shots in women's tennis. The swing is compact and simple, and she disguises it well, which makes her backhand down the line her signature weapon. Garbiñe's serve is also an important part of her game. It's a fluid and commanding motion that's beautiful to watch when she's at her best. She likes to stand close to the baseline when returning serve to try to gain control of points quickly.
With many weapons at her disposal, it's easy to see how Garbiñe won both Roland Garros and Wimbledon. Even though clay courts and slower conditions don't naturally lend themselves to her style of play, her powerful game was forceful enough to win her a French Open title, beating none other than Serena Williams in the 2016 Final. A year and a couple months later, Muguruza took out Venus Williams in the 2017 Final of Wimbledon in straight sets as well. Beating Serena and Venus in straight sets to win each of her Grand Slam titles is one of the most challenging things to do in the women's game. Needless to say, when Muguruza gets hot, she's one of the very best. When she won those Finals, her game was punishing and insuppressible. She served big, hit a ton of winners, and rarely gave away any cheap errors.
I feel like Garbiñe is capable of accessing this "laser focus," where she knows exactly what to do and how to execute it. But she's fallen out of that laser focus several times over the last few years. She goes through these inexplicable patches where she truly looks lost on the tennis court. Muguruza reached world #1 in 2017, but finished the 2018 season ranked #18. By 2019, she finished the season ranked #36. During that period, Garbiñe's game was a far cry from what we all knew she was capable of. The Spaniard was spraying errors everywhere and was often tentative. She looked unsure of herself and confused - like she didn't know how she was supposed to be playing the big points. It was as if she had forgotten how to play tennis. Muguruza was able to find her form again at the beginning of 2020. No one was expecting big results from her, so the pressure was off of her in a sense. Garbiñe reached the Final of the 2020 Australian Open where she fell short to Sofia Kenin. En route to that final, she defeated four seeded players (Elina Svitolina, Kiki Bertens, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, and Simona Halep). The 2020 Australian Open run was crucial for Muguruza - she proved to herself that she was still capable of beating the world’s best players and could challenge for the biggest titles in tennis. This tournament was the first stepping stone towards piecing her confidence back together.
In 2021, Garbiñe returned to the top 10, but her form was patchy in slams. She played great in the Middle Eastern swing, reaching the Final in Doha and winning Dubai. She also won a title in Chicago later on in the year, beating Ons Jabuer in the Final. These tournaments were great for accumulating ranking points, but Garbiñe wants to win slams. Oddly enough, she didn't make it past the 4th round of any major in 2021. But she did play an incredible match against Naomi Osaka at the Australian Open. Both women were crushing their groundstrokes and serving remarkably well. Muguruza actually had two match points and lost the match. If she had closed out this match, I wouldn't have been shocked if she had won her third Grand Slam in Melbourne - that's how well she was playing. Although she lost this match in heartbreaking fashion, Garbiñe knew she was playing well. She kept her confidence and good form for most of the season, earning her enough points to qualify for the Year End Championships. The Spaniard played a lackluster first match against Karolina Pliskova and lost in three sets. Her next round robin match was against Barbora Krejcikova, who she had some bad blood with over a dramatic tiebreak they played at the US Open. Garbiñe lost that match, so she had something to prove when they played at the YEC. The Spaniard played a pretty rough first set before dialing in and winning the next two sets comfortably. This is the match that set her up to win the YEC. Her first serve was accurate and she swung freely on her groundstrokes (not an easy thing to do in the Guadalajara altitude). Muguruza defeated the most in-form player of the latter half of the season, Anett Kontaveit, to win the YEC.
Sadly, that was where the good times stopped for Garbiñe. Throughout the entire 2022 season, she only strung together 2 match wins in a row on two occasions (Doha and the US Open). Muguruza finished the season with a W/L record of 12/17. She began the year ranked #3 in the world and many people were expecting her to be a real threat, given her performance at the 2021 YEC. But she suffered loss after loss and just never found the answers. The Spaniard lost in the 2nd Round of the Australian Open, 1st Round of the French Open, 1st Round of Wimbledon, and 3rd Round of the US Open. Things have not been better in 2023. Muguruza is currently 0/4 this year. Her first match of the season actually looked pretty promising. Garbiñe was leading Bianca Andreescu 6-0 5-2 but was unable to close out the match. Bianca won the second set in a tiebreak and won the third 6-1. Muguruza started off that match looking like a two-time major champion. She was sure of herself, aggressive, and only made 4 unforced errors in the first set. When she failed to serve out the match, doubt began to creep in. Her movement and footwork started to look awkward and her first serve left her. Her confidence completely went out the window the more the match began to slip away from her. Garbiñe will desperately be looking to win some matches in the coming weeks. The Spaniard is currently ranked #82 and could drop out of the top 100 if she doesn't win any matches in the Middle Eastern swing this month.
We will all be watching closely this year as Garbiñe hopes to pull herself out of this slump. But in order to do that, she'll have to remember who she is. I get the sense that the more matches she loses, the more doubt creeps in and clouds her abilities. It can't be easy for a two-time major champion and former world #1 to travel across the globe each week, unable to win matches - something she's more than capable of. But I commend her for how she keeps her head up and continues to search for the pieces to this strange and unruly puzzle. She's pulled herself out of slumps before. It wasn't easy, but she's done it. The important thing to remember is that Muguruza's failures have not been anywhere near as noticeable as her accomplishments. For that reason, she must keep moving forward in hopes of finding Garbiñe Muguruza, the Champion. If she never finds that level again, it's not the end of the world. She's already done more in her career than most players could ever dream of. When all is said and done, if Garbiñe made the choice to retire next week, we wouldn't remember her for her slumps. We would remember the woman who beat Serena to win Roland Garros. The fiery Spaniard who defeated Venus to win Wimbledon. We would remember the player who reached the Australian Open Final after falling out of the top 30 a few months prior. We will remember the champion who fell from grace, but got back up… and became a champion once more.
Want to keep up with Garbiñe Muguruza? Follow her on Instagram and Twitter.
