Former world No. 1 Garbine Muguruza on Wednesday beat Anett Kontaveit 6-3, 7-5 to become the first Spaniard to win the elite season-ending WTA Finals in Guadalajara, Mexico.
Muguruza, winner of the 2016 French Open and 2017 Wimbledon titles, capped a campaign this year that saw her return to the highest level with titles in Dubai and Chicago after three years outside of the top 10.
The 28-year-old is projected to end the year at No. 3 in the world.
Photo: AFP
“I’m just very happy I proved to myself once again I can be the best, I can be the ‘**maestra**,’ like how we say in Spanish,” she said. “That puts me in a very good position for next year, a good ranking. How can I say? A good energy. It’s just the payoff for such a long year.”
“My team and I worked hard. It pays off. Just shows us that we’re doing the right way,” she said.
Muguruza said it was a delight to win “such a big, big, big tournament, the Masters, in Latin America, here in Mexico.”
“I think it’s just perfect,” she said.
Arantxa Sanchez Vicario was the only other Spanish player to reach the WTA Finals championship match, falling to German Steffi Graf in 1993 at Madison Square Garden in New York.
The prestigious event was moved to Guadalajara from Shenzhen because of COVID-19 restrictions in China, and Muguruza — who won back-to-back titles in Monterrey in 2018 and 2019 — was a favorite of Mexican fans.
“Definitely I’m very supported here in Mexico,” she said. “I used it this week for sure.”
Muguruza battled back from a break down in the second set, winning the final four games of the match to seal her 10th career title, breaking Kontaveit at love.
She notched her second win of the tournament against Kontaveit, having ended the Estonian’s 12-match WTA win streak with a must-have round-robin victory on Sunday.
It was the seventh time in WTA Finals history that round-robin opponents have had a rematch in the final.
Kontaveit, whose late-season surge included four titles since August — at Cleveland, Ostrava, Moscow and Cluj-Napoca — is projected to reach a career-high ranking of seventh in the world.
She had dropped her serve just four times in four matches coming into the final, but was broken five times by Muguruza.
“I’d like to congratulate Garbine,” Kontaveit said as she accepted her second-place award. “You’ve beaten me twice this week, that’s just too good.”
FRUSTRATION: Alcaraz made several unforced errors over four sets against Bosnian Damir Dzumhur, who had never made it past the third round in a major competition Defending champion Carlos Alcaraz reached the fourth round of the French Open after laboring past Damir Dzumhur 6-1, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 in the Friday night session. The second-seeded Spaniard had never before played Dzumhur, a 33-year-old Bosnian who had never been past the third round at any major tournament. “I suffered quite a lot today,” Alcaraz said. “The first two sets was under control, then he started to play more deeply and more aggressively. It was really difficult for me.” Dzumhur hurt his left knee in a fall in the second round, and had treatment on Friday on his right leg during the
‘DREAM’: The 5-0 victory was PSG’s first Champions League title, and the biggest final win by any team in the 70-year history of the top-flight European competition Paris Saint-Germain won the Champions League for the first time as Luis Enrique’s brilliant young side outclassed Inter on Saturday in the most one-sided final ever with teenager Desire Doue scoring twice in an astonishing 5-0 victory. Doue supplied the pass for Achraf Hakimi to give PSG an early lead and the 19-year-old went from provider to finisher as his deflected shot doubled the advantage in the 20th minute. Doue scored again just after the hour mark, ending any doubt about the outcome before Khvicha Kvaratskhelia ran away to get the fourth and substitute Senny Mayulu, another teenager, made it five. Inter were
The horn sounded on Wednesday night to signal a third straight trip to the Stanley Cup Final, as the Florida Panthers celebrated merely by hopping over the boards and several heading over to congratulate goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky. It was a subdued celebration seemingly more befitting a regular-season win for the reigning Cup champs. “I remember a few years ago, it felt like such an accomplishment from where we were at one point,” forward Matthew Tkachuk said, adding: “It’s all business and we’ve got a bigger goal in mind.” The Panthers closed out the Carolina Hurricanes in five games, with a 5-3 victory in
The Edmonton Oilers on Thursday defeated the Dallas Stars 6-3 to book their place in the Stanley Cup Finals, setting up a repeat of last year’s NHL showpiece against reigning champions the Florida Panthers. The Oilers, bidding to become the first Canadian team to win the NHL’s championship series since the 1993 Montreal Canadiens, head to Florida for Game 1 of the best-of-seven series set for Wednesday. Florida, who are to play in the NHL showpiece for the third straight season, won last year’s title 4-3 to extend Canada’s decades-long Stanley Cup drought. Connor McDavid led Edmonton back to the championship series on
RSS