Imagine pounding tennis balls against a huge mirrored wall. Your reflection is as quick as you, hits the ball with the same power, and has identical objectives. Something has to give eventually though, because, after all, the wall is made of glass, and even the toughest glass breaks eventually.
Garbiñe Muguruza faced just such an opponent in Victoria Azarenka, and in winning a contest of brutal power and intensity she might finally have shattered whatever glass ceiling it is that has previously prevented her from doing herself justice at the US Open.
The Spaniard, who has won Roland Garros and Wimbledon and reached the Australian Open final, has never previously been beyond the fourth round at Flushing Meadows, but a 6-4, 3-6, 6-2 victory over Azarenka, a fellow former No 1 and a player with three finals in New York to her name, could just change that.
Muguruza’s level fluctuated – her serve, unplayable at times in the first set, went off the boil dramatically in the second – but her commitment to the task never wavered as she lifted her game at the key moments, most notably at the business end of the first and third sets, to beat Azarenka at her own game.
“I started very well, got that first set,” said Muguruza, who had never previously won a match in the Arthur Ashe Stadium. “I feel like in the second set I lost my momentum a little bit. She also came up with great shots. In the third set I managed just to be there again and go for the match a little bit. When you face these types of opponents you cannot wait, you have to go to get the win. I felt I did it. I’m happy that it’s actually my first Arthur Ashe win, after almost 10 years. It’s kind of funny.”
Muguruza’s amusement is unlikely to be shared by her opponent. Having fought back brilliantly to stem a tide of irresistible shot-making from Muguruza towards the end of the first set, Azarenka cut an increasingly frustrated figure in the decider, taking out her frustration on her racket after driving a backhand wide to drop serve in an epic sixth game that swung back and forth over multiple deuces. Azarenka arrived in New York with points to defend after reaching last year’s final, where she was beaten by Naomi Osaka, and her ranking is likely to plummet to outside the top 30 from her current position of 19th. But she can take consolation from a superb contribution to a match that ranks among the best of the tournament so far.
As for Muguruza, there is a momentum gathering around the Spaniard that bodes well for her prospects of finally making a deep run in New York. She has survived three tough matches to make the second week, clinching two tiebreaks to see off Donna Vekic and recording a first win in four attempts over Germany’s Andrea Petkovic prior to facing Azarenka, and seems more at peace with the perpetual hubbub of the city than in previous years.
“Negativity was more than positivity in the previous years,” said Muguruza, reflecting on a tournament that ought to be a happy hunting ground, given her preference for hard courts. “This year, I don’t know, I just prepared well and said, ‘Hey, at some point it’s going to change, this might be the year. I feel also, having gone through those couple of first tough matches gave me the feeling that, ‘Hey, I can do well here.’ I think going through the first rounds always gives you that confidence. In the previous years, I didn’t manage to go through those opening rounds.”
Muguruza next faces Barbora Krejcikova, the eighth seed and French Open champion, who has yet to drop a set on her maiden appearance in the main draw of the singles. The pair met recently in Cincinnati, where the Czech avenged a defeat in the Dubai final five months ago, but in this mood Muguruza need fear no one.
After an early exchange of breaks, Muguruza and Azarenka played first-strike tennis of the highest order, finding corners and painting lines as they drilled their groundstrokes with relentless power and precision, punishing the slightest sign of hesitation or lapse in quality with dead-eyed ruthlessness. It was nip and tuck until the eight game, when Muguruza suddenly hit a purple patch. Having held to love with one of five first-set aces, Muguruza took control of Azarenka’s next service game with a sequence of returns that stretched Azarenka’s powers of retrieval beyond breaking point.
A serving masterclass followed, Muguruza showcasing her variety with stinging deliveries wide, down the centre and into the body to bring up three set points. An ace sealed the set and, by the time she slammed two consecutive backhand winners to leave Azarenka comtemplating a 0-30 deficit in the opening game of the second set, Muguruza had won 14 out of the previous 15 points.
Without warning, however, the wheels came off. Azarenka fought her way out of trouble to hold, and in the next game a foot fault at 0-15 proved costly for Muguruza, the Belarusian pouncing on a short second serve to drill a crosscourt backhand return for a winner. A double fault followed from Muguruza, and when she landed herself in further trouble two games later with another foot fault, falling a double break behind, not even a faltering attempt to serve out the set at 5-1 could stall Azarenka for long.
If the second set was a more uneven affair than the first, the decider marked a return to the ferocious, near-flawless power play of the initial exchanges. Both players staved off early break points, but when Muguruza carried the momentum from an emphatic hold into the sixth game, fighting her way to a break after several deuces, there was to be no way back for Azarenka. Serving to stay in the match at 2-5, the Belarusian double-faulted to bring an electrifying contest to an anticlimactic conclusion.
Elsewhere, Simona Halep moved into the second week with a three-set victory over French Open quarter-finalist Elena Rybakina. Halep lost the opening three games of a seesaw opening set, fighting back from 3-5 down and saving four set points before finally converting her seventh set point to win a 20-point tiebreak. Rybakina, the 19th seed, hit back to level the match and led by a break in the decider before Halep recovered to see out a 7-6 (11-9), 4-6, 6-3 victory.
“It’s nice to be back in the second week of the US Open after five years,” said Halep, whose best result at Flushing Meadows came in 2015, when she reached the semi-finals. “[In] this match, every point was important, and I knew that I have to fight for every single point, because she never gives up. She showed that she’s very strong mentally, very stable emotionally.”
Halep will play Elina Svitolina in the last 16 after the Ukrainian fifth seed extended her winning streak to eight matches with a 6-4, 6-2 victory over Daria Kasatkina of Russia. “I think it was a very solid performance mentally and physically, with my tennis as well,” said Svitolina, the champion in Chicago last week. “I was very composed.”
Angelique Kerber continued her recent resurgence, moving into the last 16 with a 5-7, 6-2, 6-3 win over fellow former champion Sloane Stephens. The former world No 1 could face the defending champion Naomi Osaka in the next round.
“Before you walk on court, you know of course that the last few matches you lost,” said Kerber after what was only her second win in seven meetings with Stephens. “For me it was really important to have the mentality that I really want to win the match, and going there to fight for every ball. I think that was for me the key to turn around the match, especially after the first set.”