Mark down 2021 as the year of Garbiñe Muguruza’s re-emergence as la maestra, a tennis virtuoso to mix it with the best of the best. For a player of her stature, a former world No 1 and double grand slam champion possessed of the technique, power and athleticism to win any tournament she enters, Muguruza has too often flattered to deceive in the four years since she won Wimbledon, her last significant triumph. But when the mood takes her, as it has over the past week at the WTA Finals in Guadalajara, the Spaniard remains an irresistible force.
At 28, Muguruza has never had a clearer understanding of herself, her game and what she still wants to achieve as a player. Inspired by the chance to compete for one of the sport’s biggest titles before a Latin American crowd, Muguruza utilised that knowledge to telling effect against Anett Kontaveit, the standout performer over the final stretch of the season, to claim the title at the season-ending showpiece for the first time.
“This just proves once again that if you had it before, you have it during your whole career,” said Muguruza, who will rise to No 3 in the world rankings following her 6-3, 7-5 victory. “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. 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. It just shows us that we’re doing [things] the right way.
“I think for the people from the outside, they kind of feel like, ‘Oh, Muguruza is playing well again.’ I mean, it is true that the last couple of years I didn’t play the same way I played before. But I didn’t play bad tennis either. I was just here, there, not going into the deep rounds at grand slams that made the difference.
“I always felt I had the tennis. I was just not putting the battle together. I always believe. I made finals of a grand slam, reached the rankings, I’m like, ‘I have the tennis, I just have to show it.’ It’s hard, of course. This is just another proof that, I think, I’m actually in the best moment of my career. The experience I have now, the tennis, the way I handle myself, I think it’s much better than before.”
Evidence of these improvements has been plentiful over the past week, just as it has been throughout a season that has brought titles in Dubai – Muguruza’s first tournament win in almost two years – and Chicago, as well as final appearances in Melbourne and Doha. We will never know what might have been had Muguruza not squandered match points against Naomi Osaka at the Australian Open, or had her blistering start to the year not been undermined at a critical juncture by the thigh injury she picked up before the French Open. What we do know is that she has rarely looked more resilient, more capable of taking setbacks in her stride, more comfortable in her own skin.
As the opening set demonstrated, the passion that is rarely far from the surface has been counterbalanced by a newfound calmness and composure. Having ballooned one drive volley long and netted another to relinquish an early break, Muguruza did not hesitate to employ the tactic again in her next service game. There was no hint of frustration or self-pity when she missed two opportunities to break for a second time, but rather a quiet resolve to create and convert a third, which she duly did. And when Kontaveit powered a forehand wide to gift her a set point at 5-3, Muguruza was ready, stretching wide to hoist up a backhand lob winner so good that even she looked stunned.
“Overall I think it’s the best year for me,” said Muguruza, who lay prone on the baseline, convulsed by tears, at the moment of victory. “I might not have won a grand slam, but I deeply feel like I’ve been happier and more stable, less dramatic, and in general very happy about it.
“I was stressed at the beginning because I wanted to do so well. I had a tough group. I didn’t start well. But I was like, ‘OK, calm down, you wanted to be here, this is your dream, you are here, you still have a chance, so be quiet for a little bit, stop complaining, just keep fighting, hold there, hold to your little chances you might have.’ Me and Conchi[ta Martínez, Muguruza’s coach], we were speaking. We were just seeing all the good and positive things. ‘I know we lost, but we’re here. You have a chance. We’re not leaving from Guadalajara without just giving it all.’ Look where I am now with that mentality, keeping positive. I made it.”
For Kontaveit, it was perhaps one match too far at the end of a season that has elevated her career, her confidence and her standing in the game to a level she could barely have dreamed of when she won the second title of her career in Cleveland, on the eve of the US Open. That victory was the catalyst for a remarkable winning sequence, one that brought tournament victories in Ostrava, Moscow and Cluj-Napoca and propelled her into the world’s top 10 for the first time, earning her a place in the elite eight-woman field in Guadalajara. It has been some run, and if the enormity of the occasion weighed a little too heavily at the last, inhibiting the free-hitting abandon and sense of conviction that has been Kontaveit’s calling card in recent months, she can nonetheless look to next season with real optimism.
“I think a lot of it was nerves,” said Kontaveit, who will end the year ranked seventh. “I just felt pretty anxious on the court. I never really eased into the match. Didn’t feel fully comfortable. I think it’s definitely a very good experience for me, something that I have a lot to learn from.
“I think it definitely has given me so much confidence, so much self-belief. I’m looking forward to just taking some time to reflect, to think about what has happened in the last few months. I’ve been playing matches non-stop, so there hasn’t really been any time for that. I’m really looking forward to doing that. I’m excited for the next season. I really want to keep this momentum up, just keep improving on my game.”
Muguruza had punctured Kontaveit’s aura of invincibility with a straight-sets win in the group stage, ending a sequence of a dozen successive victories for the Estonian, and it was perhaps the self-belief derived from that result that sustained the Spaniard as she broke with a stunning forehand winner with Kontaveit serving to level the match at 5-4 in the second set. In truth, the Estonian had been up against it from the outset. It took Kontaveit five minutes to win her opening service game and eight minutes to lose her next one, Muguruza’s power off the ground thwarting her attempts to pull the Spaniard wide and prevent her from dictating the baseline exchanges.
A well-earned celebration now beckons for Muguruza – “We’re going to have some tequila, have fun,” she promised – before a renewed assault on the game’s biggest prizes. “I’m very motivated to just play those grand slams that are not yet in my place, in my home. I’m still waiting for those ones there. Overall, the big trophies are what motivates me.”
It is a bold statement, the kind of sentiment we are more accustomed to hearing from the likes of Serena Williams and Novak Djokovic, and coming from a lesser player it might invite ridicule. Coming from Muguruza, it is music to the ears. The Spaniard has finally emerged from the shadow of past achievements. La maestra is back in town. Roll on 2022.