Garbine Muguruza vs Magdalena Rybarikova
Former French Open champion Garbine Muguruza topped out in form in 2016, but appeared to peter out in the latter half of the year with some hits and misses in form, ending the note on a relative low compared to her Grand Slam win early on in the season.
She has appeared to be moving back towards that form in 2017 in recent weeks, however. This January, the Spanish ace made the quarter-finals of the Australian Open for the first time in her career, having trumped former World No.1 Svetlana Kuznetsova in straight sets in Brisbane earlier.
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Although Muguruza did not have the ideal hard-court season, the 23-year-old, like many Spanish players most comfortable on clay, has yet to drop a set coming into the semi-finals – and yet again beat Svetlana Kuznetsova in straight sets.
But she might face some tough competition in Magdalena Rybarikova. The 28-year-old Slovakian player has a dead-even record against Muguruza at 2 matches apiece of the four they have played, and defeated Muguruza in the only grass-court meeting they have ever had – at Birmingham in 2015. Rybarikova won that match convincingly – 6-3, 6-1, and the older player has always been quite the thorn in her rival’s side.
At the pair’s first ever meeting – and only meeting at a Grand Slam– at the 2013 Australian Open, Rybarikova took Muguruza to a long decider – that ended 14-12 in favour of the Spaniard – so this will not be an easy win should Muguruza take it.
Rybarikova also dumped tournament favourite Karolina Pliskova out of the tournament, as well as powerful server CoCo Vandeweghe, so this will not be an easy task for 14th seed Muguruza
Given Rybarikova has won in the pair’s only grass-court meeting – and put up a close contest at Majors, we predict she will pull off the upset here.
Prediction: Magdalena Rybarikova to win in three sets
