Garbine Muguruza performs the ceremonial kick-off for Real Madrid vs Athletic Bilbao at the Santiago Bernabeu

Garbine Muguruza was invited by Real Madrid to perform the ceremonial kick-off at the Santiago Bernabeu for the Spanish side's La Liga fixture against Athletic Bilbao.

Muguruza entered the field and was met by cheers from spectators before marking the start of the match with a fairly precise kick. Real went on to defeat Bilbao 1-0 thanks to a first-half goal from their talisman Karim Benzema.

The Spaniard has had an impressive 2021, which she capped off by winning the WTA Finals in Guadalajara a couple of weeks back.

Muguruza started the competition with a defeat to Wimbledon runner-up Karolina Pliskova in three sets. However, she bounced back to beat Barbora Krejcikova and Anett Kontaveit, thus sealing her place in the final four.

In the semifinals, the 28-year-old defeated compatriot Paula Badosa to set up a summit clash against Kontaveit. She beat the Estonian 6-3, 7-5 to win the WTA Finals.

Muguruza thus became the first Spanish woman to win the year-end competition since Arantxa Sanchez Vicario in 1993.

Muguruza ends 2021 at No.3 in the WTA rankings

Muguruza will end 2021 as the World No.3

The Spaniard produced some impressive performances in 2016 and 2017, winning the French Open and Wimbledon while also becoming the World No.1.

Her performances deteriorated in 2018 and 2019 with her ranking dropping to 36th. However, Muguruza made a comeback in 2020 by reaching the final of the Australian Open and the semifinals of the Italian Open. She ended that year ranked 15th.

2021 has gone pretty well for the Spaniard so far as she won the Dubai Championships and the Chicago Fall Classic, apart from the WTA Finals. She also finished as the runner-up at the Yarra Valley Classic and Qatar Open.

Following her success in Guadalajara, Muguruza will end 2021 ranked 3rd in the world, behind Ashleigh Barty and Aryna Sabalenka. This year, the Spaniard won 42 out of her 59 matches with a win percentage of 71%, the second best in her career so far.

Following an impressive run of form in 2021, we can expect Muguruza to have an outstanding year in 2022 and there is a fair chance she could reclaim the No.1 ranking.

The Spaniard will be among the favorites entering the Australian Open next month and will be targeting her third Grand Slam. Muguruza lost the competition's final in 2020 and will be looking to go one further in 2022.