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Garbine Muguruza had another comfortable win at the Hong Kong Tennis Open late Tuesday night. The fourth seed carefully handled the match from start to finish taking down Ana Bogdan in straight sets 6-2 6-1 on Centre Court at the Victoria Park Tennis Centre. The first serve of the world number 12 never faltered showing her poise and aggression working together to advance to the quarterfinals.
The two met back in Monterrey earlier this season with the Spaniard a shutout in the opening set followed by a tough win of the second going to the brink of the set. With a good hold of Spain’s Sara Sorribes Tormo, Muguruza stood as the last one from her country having a lot of confidence behind her to move forward. Bogdan avoided a 1-4 deficit in the deciding set to overtake Caroline Dolehide and make the second round. As the quarterfinal spot stands up for grabs the Romanian would try to even the series taking down the fourth seed.
She soon witnessed the power of her opponent as the world number 12 scored four consecutive aces to win the serve to love. She gave herself break point chances in the next game but rushed just enough giving Bogdan a chance to force deuce. The two went a couple of breaks before the consistency of Muguruza’s errors gave the Romanian a hold. Things got back to normal for the 25-year-old as she held serve in the third before making it 3-1 on a break. Muguruza ran into her own pattern with a second straight hold in order to go for the double break of Bogdan.
The Spaniard accomplished that with a shutout of the Romanian in the sixth before serving for the set. Bogdan tried to get the break up 40-15 but errors got Muguruza back in contention. An ace gave her set point but it was sent back to deuce with a great crosscourt return. Bogdan continued to fight for the AD point which came to her after four breaks keeping her comeback hopes alive. Muguruza still had chances to put the Romanian away as she attempted to do in the eighth. A critical error gave the fourth seed a second set point which she drove away from Bogdan scoring her 16th winner that finished the set in 38 minutes.
The 25-year-old pushed herself to try and dictate the start of the second set with a break but Muguruza was in fine form to deal with the situation and score herself the opening lead. Bogdan continued to be a challenge for the Spaniard but getting the result she wanted was a success going forward. By the fourth game, she had a double break on the Romanian and what was becoming a runaway. She held once more to lead 5-0 where she looked for the bagel on Bogdan’s serve.
The Romanian managed to stave off the shutout and hold in the sixth but it was an uphill battle for any chance at a comeback. With the Spaniard back on serve, she smashed the ball with everything she had left to put an end to the match. She reached three match points with ease landing a cross-court winner for the advance that took 1 hour and 15 minutes.
Muguruza never took any chats with coach Sam Sumyk as she proved that she had things under control scoring 27 of 36 on the first serve with the four aces and numerous winners recorded. With her comfort level in just the right place, she’ll go into Friday facing Thailand’s Luksika Kumkhum who looked for more success in her own career.
