US Open: Garbiñe Muguruza can make final leap at Flushing Meadows
Garbiñe Muguruza is one of the fastest rising stars in tennis, but there’s a challenge that continues to get the best of her: The US Open.
Garbiñe Muguruza is looking the part of the next big thing on the WTA Tour. With the 2017 US Open looming, Muguruza has achieved a significant measure of momentum with her performances in Grand Slams and WTA events alike.
In order to truly make the leap to the ranks of the world’s elite, however, Muguruza will need to exorcise her demons at the US Open.
Muguruza has achieved a ranking of No. 3 on the WTA Tour. At 23 years of age, she’s already won two Grand Slam tournaments, made three Grand Slam finals, and reached the quarterfinals at six separate Grand Slam events.
The one hurdle that Muguruza has yet to overcome, however, is the US Open, where she’s never made it past Round 2.
As the 2017 US Open nears, however, Muguruza has a great deal of momentum working in her favor. She defeated three different Top 11 players to on her way to the Wimbledon crown: Angelique Kerber, Svetlana Kuznetsova, and Venus Williams.
She followed that success by reaching the semifinals at Stanford and the quarterfinals at the Premier 5 event in Toronto.
Most recently, Muguruza prepared for the biggest tournament of her career by winning the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati—one of her biggest titles to date. She defeated Beatriz Haddad Maia 6-2, 6-0 in the Round of 32, and outlasted Madison Keys 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (7-3) in the Round of 16.
A round later, she secured yet another win over Kuznetsova, a two-time Grand Slam champion and two-time US Open finalist, by a count of 6-2, 5-7, 7-5.
Over the course of the next two rounds, Muguruza made it abundantly clear that she’s coming for the world No. 1 ranking. She dominated current world No. 1, Karolina Pliskova, by a count of 6-3, 6-2—a statement win if there’s ever been one.
In the final, she was even more dominant against world No. 2 Simona Halep, storming her way to a 6-1, 6-0 victory and her second title of the 2017 season.
Simply put: Following the Western & Southern Open, there’s no player on the WTA Tour who should be more of a favorite at the US Open than Muguruza. She obliterated the top two players in the world, and won the most recent Grand Slam event.
Unfortunately, a cloud still hangs over Muguruza as far as the US Open is concerned.
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The question is: Will Garbiñe Muguruza exorcise her US Open demons and make the final leap towards becoming the best active player on the WTA Tour?