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Garbine Muguruza gave it her all but couldn’t beat away the competition at the Wuhan Open early Thursday morning. Katerina Siniakova was determined to win her match against the Spaniard and put everything down to win 7-6(3), 7-6(1) on Centre Court at the Wuhan Optical Valley International Tennis Centre. It became her tenth top 20 wins of her career and one to advance her to the quarterfinals.
The two met in their one and only meeting five years ago where they spanned three sets with the Spaniard gaining the upper hand in the decider. While it was a first round match, it made this one important as the Czech remained the last unseeded player with the chance to become a seventh of the tournament to advance.
She got another massive win taking down Caroline Garcia in three sets that made her the dark horse to defeat. Muguruza had yet to face anyone strong in the tournament making her quest to make it back to the round of eight for a third year.
Siniakova opened with a good service hold before she was taken on a ride she couldn’t control. Muguruza continued to beat down the 22-year old who briefly had the lead but saw the Spaniard force deuce.
The Czech blew two more break points prior to the world number 12 holding serve. She consolidated it with a break in the third earning a break on deuce before going on a runaway path. It was soon 4-1 with a double break in hand for the 24-year-old who pressured Siniakova to commit a double fault in the game.
She continued her fall down the hill as the Spaniard conducted another victory to put the Czech on the edge of going a set down. She somehow saved a service game-ending Muguruza’s five-game winning streak.
She made the smart decision to call down Ian Hughes to figure out how to come back from the three-game deficit that stood. He gave her enough positive words and confidence to break in the eighth. Her short success didn’t take much away on the speedy returns from Muguruza who forced deuce with a smash and Siniakova away from returning it.
Despite battling for the AD point, she couldn’t lock it down giving Siniakova a third straight victory. Her last chance to conclude the set in regulation came in the tenth on serve where she landed an ace after being 0-30 down. It was the only point she earned as Siniakova completed the comeback to get more games in play. Muguruza was intent on changing up the pace to get back going her way doing so with a great set of hits on Siniakova that gave her the 6-5 lead.
The Czech fought back to make sure she had another chance and clinched it in the 12th setting up the tiebreak that she was destined to win. Muguruza’s game began to let her down again giving Siniakova all the comfort of stretching her lead to 5-1 with the set in reach. A challenge that went against the Spaniard gave the 22-year-old four set points which she needed just two to get it done in 65 minutes.
The Czech started the second set with two consecutive wins before Muguruza got on the board. It was then that she called out coach Sam Sumyk who told her to come in and work out the points that she is losing and find a way to win during those moments.
She delivered well on the break scoring a break to love before a hold in the fifth had her back in fine form. Siniakova called out her coach again who told her to commit to the shots and get the control back.
It had clearly slipped away from her as Muguruza gained a second double break of the match-winning four straight to get a shot at forcing a decider. Siniakova made sure not to give another game away and worked out a break from her end to sit a game back of turning the tables on the Spaniard.
A hold put her to the good where the score was level at four-all with every point counting to take the lead in hand. Muguruza put in a lot of energy on the returns of the first point she found a chance to beat Siniakova at.
She didn’t get the start she wanted as she found herself down 15-40 but climbed back to force deuce. The game got away from her by the narrowest of margins as Siniakova won on a challenge while on the AD point to serve for the match in the tenth.
Muguruza wasn’t ready to give up and proved her worth by taking a 30-0 run to start the game. It was soon evened up by the 22-year-old who played the next key point well until a line drive from the Spaniard set up a break point opportunity. A long rally ended in a crosscourt return from Muguruza to force the set further on.
She was again under the gun with big hits just going too far giving Siniakova two break points before another went down the line wide. The Czech made the opening rally difficult for Muguruza who committed another forehand error landing wide. She came in just enough on the court to secure the second point but was trounced by the same attack by the 24-year-old.
A ball into the net from the 14th seed forced deuce for Siniakova but gained the first AD point to pressure her opponent. A good challenge on a ball that she saw was out was confirmed by Hawkeye to be true enabling the second tiebreak between the two.
Like the end of the first set, Siniakova gained the comfortability with three easy points as the former number one began to unravel. The Czech set up for a shot which wrongfooted the Spaniard for a 5-0 rout. A line drive scored Muguruza a winner ending the 22-year-old’s winning streak but needed more improvements.
An error gave Siniakova her first match point which came on a volley right in front of the net that just got over. Muguruza tried to get to it before the second bounce but couldn’t get the racket in place that ended her tournament run in two hours and eight minutes.
While both had a great show of determination, the Czech had more left in the tank to withstand the 14th seed and get into Thursday’s quarterfinal where she’ll face Anett Kontaveit from Estonia.
