WTA: Muguruza ready for “la profesora” in semi-finals

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  • Garbine Muguruza is just the second player to go 3-0 in groups.

    Garbine Muguruza is bracing herself for “la profesora”, Agnieszka Radwanska, in the semi-finals of the WTA Finals on Saturday. The “teacher”, that is how the Spaniard refers to her crafty opponent.

    Muguruza became just the second player in history to go 3-0 in group play on her tournament debut, after she earned a hard-fought 6-4, 4-6, 7-5 victory on Friday over Petra Kvitova, who incidentally is the other woman to achieve that feat when she won the Championships in 2011.

    The No2 seed is also the first woman since Venus and Serena Williams in 2009 to make the semi-finals in both singles and doubles at the WTA Finals. Except when the Williams sisters did it, only four doubles teams played the event and were de facto semi-finalists. In Muguruza’s case, she and Carla Suarez Navarro are part of an eight-team field and fought their way through round robin matches.

    Surely buoyed by confidence from her results this week, as well as throughout the Asian swing, Muguruza must fancy her chances against Radwanska, who is 0-4 against the young Spaniard in 2015 (2-4 overall). But Muguruza is well aware of her opponent’s talent, tennis intelligence and craftiness, and is taking nothing for granted.

    “Now I face la maestra, la profesora,” said Muguruza in Spanish, which translates to ‘the teacher’.

    “That what we call her. It’s true that this year she lost to me in all our matches together. But right now, that’s when all the other three semi-finalists are starting to play better. Now is when the ground starts moving,” which is a Spanish expression meaning things will get tougher.

    Muguruza needed just one set to secure passage to the semis but she did not take her foot off the gas pedal after going up 6-4 on Kvitova.

    The two-hour 33-minute affair was a gruelling battle that saw 15 breaks of serve and a combined 24 break point opportunities. Both players sport huge serves but were hurting each other with deep returns. It was Muguruza who finally won on her fourth match point with a volley winner up at the net.

    Muguruza’s biggest challenge ahead is not just Radwanska, it is the fact that she will be competing for a seventh consecutive day having been on double duty in both singles and doubles, while her opponent has been playing every other day.

    “For sure I’m tired today. It’s going to be a challenge for me to see how much my body can handle,” said the 22-year-old. “It’s great to be in my position I think now, to be playing singles and doubles semi-finals, but it’s going to be hard. I have to recover well and do everything possible to be ready for both matches.”

    Saved by a Czech

    The three-set loss left Kvitova’s fate in the hands of her friend and team-mate Lucie Safarova, who was already eliminated having gone 0-2 in her first two matches, but would send Kvitova into a semi-final clash against Maria Sharapova with a straight-sets win over Angelique Kerber.

    Lucky for Kvitova, her fellow Czech had her back as Safarova ousted Kerber 6-4, 6-3 in 87 minutes.

    Such is the drama of round robin play.

    “Teamwork,” a laughing Safarova told Andrew Krasny on court after her win. In two weeks’ time, she and Kvitova will take on the Russians in the Fed Cup final in Prague.

    Kvitova, who has been slugging through her matches all week as she continues to fight glandular fever, tweeted her friend later:

    In reality, Safarova had plenty of personal reasons to win that match, irrespective of how it affected Kvitova. The French Open runner-up had not won a match since New Haven in August and has struggled with a bacterial infection that hospitalised her after the US Open.

    She was competing in Singapore in both singles and doubles, but went 0-2 in singles and was forced to retire from her second doubles match as her partner Bethanie Mattek-Sands was struck by a knee injury.

    Ending her season on a high note was a priority. Helping Kvitova was simply a nice bonus.

    “I was just like fighting for myself to get a positive end of the season, because I think I was playing pretty well last couple matches but didn’t get the win,” said the eighth-seeded Safarova.

    “So I was really pumped today to go out there and fight. I think I played great. I pressured her. I was just converting everything.  I served really well. I’m really happy that I finished so strong.”

    Kerber needed just one set to go through but appeared frustrated throughout the 87-minute clash and later slammed the WTA Finals scheduling format, saying the last day of round robin play should have both matches played simultaneously, not one after the other.

    “I think it’s not fair, because I think it’s like on the football. Like when it’s really counting for something, you should play like the same time,” said Kerber, who was making her third WTA Finals appearance.

    “I was actually trying to be in my tunnel and just focusing on my match. But everybody around me was… I actually was not counting… They were counting. ‘Okay, she won one set, now you must win just one set’. Whatever.  I don’t know exactly what they thought, but I think it’s fairer like in football if you play in the same time.”

    With only one stadium at the WTA Finals, it is not possible two schedule two matches simultaneously. 

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