Wimbledon 2017: Garbine Muguruza is a present and future champion

Garbine Muguruza, the player who ended the French Open in tears has defied her critics with a victory full of heart.

Garbine Muguruza poses with The Venus Rosewater Dish as she celebrates winning the women's singles final. Picture: AFP.

Sometimes it is hard to know whether to be generous or unkind. You might praise Garbine Muguruza for a comprehensive victory or chide Venus Williams for collapsing, losing the last nine games to concede.

The first approach is surely correct and makes sense of a strange match which was fiercely contested for an hour and was then all one way. For that hour, there was much to admire and celebrate. Both combatants — and they were combatants — hammered the ball from corner to corner as they attempted to wrest the initiative. The power was at times astonishing; the athleticism wonderful as balls that seemed certain winners were retrieved from apparently impossible positions. Indeed, some of those desperate lunges launched counter-attacks.

This was women’s tennis at its best, and it served to give us a champion of tremendous agility, dynamic shot-making and plenty of heart. All other title aspirants, including Johanna Konta, should take note.

Williams opened the match with an ace down the centre at 109mph. Muguruza opened her first service game with a double fault. She also started spraying forehand drives way out of court, just as she had during the warm-up. That suggested anxiety in her second Wimbledon final.

The first nine games were tense and close, but the impression was that Williams was the most likely to prevail. Muguruza’s service was the one more often under threat, but she was resilience itself when it came to defending break points.

During this phase, the two finalists presented markedly contrasting figures. Williams was tall and languid, moving slowly between points, using not an iota of unnecessary energy. Muguruza was all fidgety movement, keeping her feet moving, displaying her intensity.

One wondered when the stalemate would break, when the dam might give way. It happened with the first break of service in the 11th game, but it was in the preceding game, which Muguruza somehow managed to win, holding it like a tigress, that everything changed and the title was won and lost.

Garbine Muguruza dropped onto her knees after winning the Wimbledon title. Picture: AFP.

Williams had of course noticed Muguruza’s errors on the forehand side, many of them gross. She had also discovered just how dangerous and consistent was Muguruza’s double-handed hitting from the backhand side. So when Muguruza had been reduced to 15-40, facing two set points, Williams attacked the forehand, hitting ball after ball onto that side, hoping for yet another error. It did not come because Williams effectively played Muguruza’s liability into form. Muguruza saved both set points, hitting a stream of accurate forehands, and it was Williams, ironically, who missed with her own forehand.

“I knew she would fight and make me suffer,” Muguruza said. “When those set points arrived I told myself that this is normal. It’s Venus. I stayed calm.”

The next two games were well contested. The Williams service was at last broken and when Muguruza came to serve for the set she was aided by a last-ditch fling of her racket that sent the ball skyward as an unintended lob that landed on the baseline.

Two points later the first set was hers, and the crowd, which had favoured neither player, but thrilled to the quality of many of the rallies, expected more of the same, perhaps a fightback from Williams and a deciding set. Not a bit of it. Muguruza grew stronger, her backhand, especially crosscourt, became ever more damaging. Williams first subsided and then crumbled.

It was only a few weeks ago that Muguruza, as the defending French Open champion, had left the court at Roland Garros to boos after losing to Kristina Mladenovic of France. In her press conference, Muguruza broke down in tears.

That, and a poor year, led some to suggest that Muguruza lacks a champion’s determination. She has scotched that falsehood. Muguruza is 23, still short of maturity and consistency. Notably, she has won as many Grand Slam championships, two, as she has ordinary tour events. Moreover, she beat a Williams sister in each of her winning Grand Slam finals.

Muguruza’s regular coach, Sam Sumyk, stayed at home because his wife is expecting a baby. In his place, Muguruza was assisted by Conchita Martinez, the only other woman from Spain to win the Wimbledon ladies title. Much has been made of that, especially as Martinez also beat a 37-year-old, Martina Navratilova, when she won in 1994. Twice, a Spanish woman has spoiled the story, or the party, for an old stager striving for a final victory to seal a great career.

All true, but beside the point. What we saw on Centre Court yesterday was the emergence of a present and future champion. Muguruza was scintillating as she grabbed her chance. Her Wimbledon title was deserved. It won’t be her last.

The Sunday Times