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Garbine Muguruza was again in good shape at the Dubai Duty-Free Tennis Championships Tuesday. The Spaniard handled the competition against Saisai Zheng who fell in straight sets 7-5, 6-2 on court one at the Dubai Duty-Free Tennis Stadium. It was the second win in a row against the Chinese star as she was playing like a well-oiled machine.
A first-round meeting went heavily in favor of the Spaniard who allowed Zheng just three wins in her straight sets loss. With a terrific stance against Dayana Yastremska that got the monkey off her back, the 25-year-old planned to roll the success into a possible winning streak against the Chinese star. She made it to the second round last year, and with Muguruza as a formidable opponent, the world number 41 would have to bring her best quickly in order to dictate a favorable hold on both sides of the ball.
She followed Muguruza with a hold of serve before fighting to clinch herself a break in the third. Making sure to put pressure on the score and her opponent, she created three break point chances to win it on the second break. She soon had a 3-1 lead over the Spaniard defending her serve that was forced around but after three breaks she had Muguruza right where she wanted her.
Things turned around fast for the former world number one as he dispatched a hold of serve in the fifth to close the gap. Getting herself in gear to break Zhang was still a difficult task as she climbed back from 15-40 to force deuce.
Unfortunately, the Spaniard couldn’t gain the much-needed AD point to level the score and went back two games down. A serve to love for Muguruza got her back within one but the effort was trounced by a stronghold from Zheng to play for the set. The Spaniard denied her anything more from her service game and locked down another serve to love in the ninth.
A push to three break points in the tenth gave Muguruza full press to level the score at five-all. The 25-year-old got behind on her serve but rallied back in time saving two break points that allowed her to dictate on deuce.
With another service game in hand, she rushed to three set points giving herself room to allow one to be saved by the Chinese star before closing the books on the set after 55 minutes. Muguruza picked the right time to turn things around having won 19 of 25 on the first serve and kept the second from falling under 50 percent. It took a toll of Zheng who won only 24 percent from the return side with her second serve suffering greatly.
She got into real trouble to start the second as the Spaniard got into a higher gear and dominated on her service game. She quickly had three games under her belt looking to capture her first double break. Despite a push from Zheng to hold serve with great groundstrokes, Muguruza fired back the returns with a force of aggression that allowed her to gain the AD point and take full command of the set.
The Spaniard added another serve to love that made it a 5-0 rout of Zheng who was eyeing the dreaded bagel to her name. In an effort to stop that from happening, she remained firm on her end forcing Muguruza to make the mistakes as she attempted to rush to victory. The 25-year-old was suddenly behind giving Zheng triple breakpoint needing a huge save to come. It didn’t as the Chinese star fired a last winner sharp to continue with the set after seven.
Muguruza was done allowing Zheng to make a full comeback and got a jump on her with two match points on the break. Zheng saved one on a perfectly positioned stance but the next point was not meant to go to deuce giving Muguruza the win after 1 hour and 33 minutes.
The world number 19 finished with the first serve maintaining success having won 74 percent and six of eight break points won. With a terrific return game, it would be enough to face Elina Svitolina who stood in her way in the round of 16.
