Australian Open 2019: Muguruza cruises to victory in straight sets over Zheng

By Rudy Martinez
Modified Jan 25, 2019 17:13 GMT
Muguruza was comfortable and eased to a straight-sets victory in Round One on Day 2
Muguruza was comfortable and eased to a straight-sets victory in Round One on Day 2

Garbine Muguruza pushed hard to secure her first-round win at the Australian Open on Tuesday. The Spaniard, who came out blazing to start the match, gave Saisai Zheng a tough challenge who fe in straight sets 6-2, 6-3 on Court Three on the grounds of Melbourne Park.

The two met for the first time with both looking for the important win to dig in for the remainder of the tournament. For Muguruza, a great response was key to avoid having a second-round finish like she did last year.

In her seventh appearance at the Open, the Spaniard gained valuable time on the court and was ready to play the role of a power player. Zheng had played one match so far this season and despite not getting the win in that, she was looking to play for an early upset.

Garbine starts quickly, to devastating effect

Muguruza made sure to start quickly and led the way through three games staying on serve.

Continuing her attacking approach, she looked for an attempt to break the 24-year-old. The Spaniard achieved three break points in the sixth that came after an excellent cross-court return, which Zheng struggled to get a good answer for. With a two-game buffer, Muguruza kept herself strong in the set - brushing off a force of deuce in the seventh to take a 5-2 hold.

It was all over for Zheng in the first as Muguruza coasted against her opponent’s serve. The Chinese player double-faulted before two unforced errors ended the set in 33 minutes for the 18th seed. Muguruza served 75% with more than two-thirds coming big for points scored. The second serve was only used on six occasions, but she managed to score on five instances, making it a comfortable afternoon for her.

When the second set got underway, Muguruza blanked Zheng that quickly led to another one. Zheng erred just enough for the Spaniard to conduct a second shutout to open the gap. She had a three-game lead holding Zheng from getting the early break of serve to win on the second break of deuce.

Zheng fights, but it's not enough

She fought with everything she had to avoid giving up another double break and forced deuce late with the Spaniard. Making good to gain the first advantage point, locking down the serve.

It was all she would see as Muguruza dictated the next two games, scoring a serve to love before capturing the break with plenty of opportunities. Zheng somehow captured another game breaking the Spaniard and went for another in the eighth. The sudden surge of victories from the 24-year-old had her inching back into contention but there were a lot of chances for Muguruza to end it on her own terms.

She did that in the ninth game with terrific groundstrokes and placement on the court that made the returns tough for Zheng to answer back from. She saw her tournament come to a close on a final error that completed 1 hour and 15 minutes on-court.

Zheng had 18 in total, which came with the struggles off her second serve - only producing 33% from. Muguruza meanwhile, executed her shots well from start to finish, which is something she'll be happy about.

There's no time for her to relax though, as she has to immediately prepare for her intriguing encounter against Johanna Konta - who went the full distance during a three-set thriller against Ajla Tomljanović earlier today.