Muguruza wins

Garbine Muguruza won the Wimbledon championship today, beating Venus Williams, 7-5, 6-0.  This was an old fashioned slugfest in the first set, with the players trading mainly powerful forehands.  Muguruza got a late break and served out the first set, which really could have gone either way.

            After that Venus pretty much collapsed.   She began spraying shots from both sides and moving relatively sluggishly around the court.  Her problem seemed more mental than physical, as she seemed to have counted on the first set to springboard her to victory.  However, although she lost, Venus had a very impressive tournament, and played what I believe to be some of the best tennis of her career.

            An important feature of Muguruza’s game in this match and throughout the tournament was that she embraced the principle once articulated by Lindsay Davenport: “If you can’t hit a winner, don’t make an error.”  When out of position, Muguruza put balls deep in the court with high net clearance and waited for more opportune times to hit out.  This approach is lacking in many young female players with great ground games (Ostapenko, Keys, Osaka, Giorgi etc.).  These players seem quite often to go for broke on every ball, and they hit so well, the approach often works (witness Ostapenko’s French Open win).  But a certain amount of discipline and tactics can greatly strengthen a player’s game, as Muguruza showed in this tournament.  It’s interesting to contrast this win with her victory over Serena Williams in the French Open last year.  In that match Muguruza blasted every ball and got away with it.  This year at Wimbledon she played a powerful but much more secure game.  She also served well, which has not always been true of late.

            If Garbine continues playing this way, harnessing her awesome power and playing some tactical tennis, she will win many more majors.