Garbine Muguruza has lamented her pattern of fading away in the final set of matches, the two-time major winner struggling in Melbourne’s extreme heat on Tuesday and exiting the Australian Open early.
Muguruza described her 3-6, 7-6 (7-3), 6-1 loss to seeded Belgian Elise Mertens, before the Open’s extreme heat policy came into play, as “really tough”.
The Spaniard experienced cramp in the lopsided deciding set on Margaret Court Arena but, regardless, her capacity to close out matches is firmly front of mind.
A Roland Garros and Wimbledon champion, Muguruza has lost her past eight deciding sets in a pattern that goes back 12 months. More worrying, five of those fadeouts have been sets decided 6-1 since last year’s Indian Wells.
“[It was] tough because I thought I had a moment to close the match and I didn’t do it, and that gave her a huge boost,” said Muguruza of the frustrating defeat.
“I lost my momentum there in the second set, clearly in the third set she was more fired up and I was physically struggling more.
“It’s difficult to lose first round. It’s never easy to accept it.”
The Australian Open implemented the final stage of its heat policy, suspending matches on outside courts, not long after 2pm.
With the tournament’s heat stress scale reaching ‘five’ – the highest measurement on the scale since the policy was overhauled before the 2019 tournament – play was suspended on the outside courts.
It any case, it was too late for world No.73 Muguruza, a star who rose to the top ranking in 2017 and, on this trip to Melbourne, acknowledged she felt the pinch as the temperature rose sharply.
“I wasn’t expecting today to suffer on court, and [that] the heat was going to be there,” she said.
“Definitely the match was intense, but I think nerves and tiredness affected me in the third set.”
Muguruza also dropped the third set 6-1 to Canadian Bianca Andreescu in Adelaide two weeks ago.
“I think I’m struggling to have opportunities to close [out matches],” she said.
“You kind of feel like you have it, but no, and obviously the other one [your opponent] becomes stronger.
“I definitely have to find a way to be more competitive in those moments when my opponent is bringing the highest level of the match.”
On a day of largely expected results in the bottom half of the women’s singles, leading chances Aryna Sabalenka and Caroline Garcia had clinical wins, while Anett Kontaveit and American Shelby Rogers won through.
Australian wildcard Kimberley Birrell stirred things up by eliminating Estonian veteran Kaia Kanepi.
World No.4 Garcia was only on court for 65 minutes in beating Canadian qualifier Katherine Sebov – barely enough time to get knocked around by the heat.
The WTA Finals champion said conditions on centre court were warm but “felt okay”.
“I have to admit on the Rod Laver it was pretty nice,” said the Frenchwoman.
“Obviously it was warm. It was nice to be able to walk in the shadow a little bit when you were able to serve, but I didn’t feel that such warm weather.
“I don’t know in the crowd there is some AC or whatever, but it felt warm, but it felt okay.”
World No.5 Belarusian Sabalenka got her campaign running in style, defeating Czech Tereza Martincova 6-1, 6-4 in 69 minutes.
A title-winner in Adelaide already this year, Sabalenka said she was feeling good after results over the past year.
“I think just because of the last year and because I was struggling with a lot of things, and just because I was able to fix all the problems I was facing last year,” she said.
“And of course after a title, of course I felt like a little bit more, I mean, confidence. Yeah, I mean, if
that’s the word.
“But I just feel that I have everything in my pocket, and I just have to show that.”
