Seed No.9 Garbiñe Muguruza secured a complete win over another major competitor in round 16 of the Dubai Freestyle Tennis Championships, moving past No.8 seed Iga Swiatek, 6-0, 6-4.
Muguruza dominated what happened from the start, winning in 1 hour, 9 minutes while closing in a place in the Dubai quarterfinals for the fourth time in her seven consecutive appearances.
“From the beginning, I was there to control the score, and I was taking the win,” Muguruza said in her post-match press conference. “I think she lost, in the first set, a scene or two here and there that gave me the added benefit.”
Muguruza, who is already on two singles finals this season, improved her 2021 loss record to 15-4. Meanwhile, Swiatek, the champion of Roland Garros, who had won six games, which included a run to the Adelaide title, came to an end.
The first difficult set for Swiatek was carried early as she dropped her first two games of service with double cracks on break points. Muguruza kept clean in the opening, with five wins to just four non-critical errors, but Swiatek was unable to get his delivery clicked in the frame, making just 29 percent of his first services play.
“I think I took my chances, and I was effective when I had to break her service, or stay with my service,” Muguruza said. “Just happy with the way I started. I had a lot of focus, looking forward to the game too. Sometimes you start a little off, but today I felt good on the court. “
Muguruza’s deep return and powerful forehands led to an early 3-1 lead in the second set before Swiatek finally scored her first service break of the day, rediscovering her powerful ground hits to set the set at 3-3.
However, Muguruza returned to her playbook and worked her points perfectly, combining heavy results with punishing forehands to earn another break for 5-4 and serve for the game. The shield guided Muguruza’s forehand through the final game, turning her first game point with the third ace of the day.
“It felt like every point was very fast,” Muguruza said. “We didn’t have that many long rallies today, so it felt like you could go 3-0 up or 3-0 down. I feel like the way in which If we’re playing on the surface, it doesn’t look like that was 20-ball Rallies. “
Muguruza will now face another key player in the quarter-finals: No. 3 seed Aryna Sabalenka. The two clashed last week in Doha, where Muguruza was gaining the upper hand.
Gauff comes forward to face Teichmann again: Coco Gauff put on her best show at the WTA 1000 event by securing her place in the finals of the Dubai Freestyle Tennis Championships with a 6-4, 6-2 victory over player Tereza Martincova.
Gauff, 17, on Saturday (Dubai final day), scored 77 percent of her first-serve points and broke Martincova four times to execute a 66-minute direct victory.
The same small stumble came for Gauff when she gave up service in her first game of the second set, but the American teenager went back by reaching six straight games in a row to close out the win. mach.
Gauff will meet Jil Teichmann in the quarter-finals after Teichmann beat Ons Jabeur 6-3, 6-3 in the lap on Wednesday night.
Teichmann has yet to release a set in the event as she picked up an 84-minute win over Jabeur. The Swiss player was steadily waiting as she unfolded, waiting for the six resting points ahead.
Jabeur, hopefully a semi-finalist in Dubai for the first time in her fourth major draw, fired eight more winners than Teichmann but was ruled out by 38 errors or -conditional, 20 more deceptive than her opponent.
Surprisingly, this is the third time Teichmann and Gauff have gone off. Teichmann lost her first two games of the season to Gauff, when the American teenager sent off a Swiss player in the first round at both the Gippsland Cup and the Australian Open.
Since then, Teichmann has bounced back with nine wins in her next 11 games, reaching the semifinals or better in the last three events.