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Garbine Muguruza saw no problems to her start at the BNP Paribas Open Friday afternoon. With cold and windy conditions, the Spaniard earned a great win against Lauren Davis who had physical troubles to lose in straight sets 6-1, 6-3 on Stadium One at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden. It was a second straight second-round loss for the American, while the former world number one made it seven straight victories to start the main draw.
The two faced off six years ago, making this a key second round. The hardcourt season hasn’t helped either attain titles as of yet, but they won more than five of their last ten matches. The Spaniard has never lost her opening round match in the desert, and looked to give Davis back-to-back exits in the tournament. Despite not playing since Dubai, the 25-year-old played a warmup in doubles, allowing her to find her timing and execution.
Davis started off by facing Muguruza’s service, which produced a couple of winners and good groundstrokes to hold the American to a point. Davis didn’t have the same result on her serve, as Muguruza recorded several unforced errors on serve. Davis forced things to deuce but struggled to get a grip as the American went five breaks ahead. On her fourth AD point attempt, it was Davis delivering a wide angled return that brought an end to the near ten-minute game.
It was another tight affair in the third game as Davis made it difficult for Muguruza to dig in. She drew her into another deuce game but found a way to hold after a couple of breaks. Davis’s game disappeared as she shut herself out, with a double fault and several unforced errors that gave the Spaniard a 3-1 lead. After five games, Muguruza had won the last 11 points putting Davis in a tough spot sitting a break down. It was quickly a double break for the Spaniard, having a solid return game that beat down the American, whose confidence was failing.
On serve for the set, Muguruza had a hold of the conditions. While it wasn’t a clean game, she earned the win with Davis struggling to get deep into the rallies, leading to her losing after two breaks that ended 40 minutes of play in the set. The Spaniard minimized the errors to just six, while Davis had racked up 18. The first server percentage was below 45 percent on both sides. The American took a coaching call with Eddie Elliot, who asked how she was feeling with her right leg taped up. He tried to keep her positive and told her to focus on her strengths, and how she could use them better.
She put together a strong service game to start the second set, as Muguruza hit a few returns into the net. Despite playing deuce, it only took two breaks and an AD point to be on the right track. Muguruza held the second game, with Davis losing her footing while chasing after the ball in the windy conditions. She slipped during the next point, but got up to continue playing.
A break to love for the 20th seed increased the margin between herself and Davis, who was not in gear to face the opposition. A hold came to her in the fifth but the gap remained in favor of Muguruza, who kept the heat on. Davis accepted the challenge and attained a hold in the seventh to close in on levelling the score. After five service holds between the two, it was the 20th seed earning her chance to play for the match with Davis very much fatigued.
She couldn’t keep Muguruza back, leading them to deuce, but soon erred on a forehand return. It was all over on a second match point that came on a final wide return from Davis, ending the 1 hour and 35 minutes match.
Muguruza said to Andrew Krasny after the match:
“I’m happy that I went through. It was a tough day and Lauren played very good. I was happy with the concentration being able to hand the wind it’s tough to play beautifully so you have to be humble and just try to fight.”
She’ll await the winner between Victoria Azarenka and Serena Williams in a round three match on Sunday.
