The Spanish-Venezuelan tennis player Garbine Muguruza maintained her good level in this start of the Australian Open, the first ‘Grand Slam’ of the season, and was overwhelmingly classified for the round of 16 after winning this Friday by a double 6-1 to the Kazakh Zarina Diyas, although now she will have her first big exam against the Japanese Naomi Osaka, while Pablo Carreno, injured, and Pedro Martinez ended their adventure in Melbourne.
The good feelings that the finalist of the year is leaving at the start of the campaign were confirmed again in her third match in the Australian ‘big’. The one from Caracas played very seriously against a rival who in their previous match had demanded a lot from her and signed her pass among the 16 best of the tournament for the sixth time in her career. Muguruza has only given ten games so far at Melbourne Park and has been on the track for just over three hours, so he arrives with good energy for a duel that can measure his aspirations to go far again, a gate guarded by Naomi Osaka, world number three and champion in 2009, who is also showing firm so far and easily got rid of an uncomfortable rival like the Tunisian Ons Jabeur (6-3, 6-2).
The fourteenth favorite showed her potential in the Margaret Court Arena, supported again by her good service, which she did not lose although she conceded five break balls, and by the aggressiveness of her shots, very effective this time, with more winners ( 17) than unforced errors (14). Muguruza always demanded and kept Diyas, who was never able to get into a duel in which he was always in tow. In the first set, the Spanish-Venezuelan offered a great level on the court and achieved two breaks to go 4-1. Also, she dared to save her greatest moment of difficulty, a 0-40 in the sixth game, and prevent the Kazakh to gain confidence.
In the second set, the former world number one did not slacken and again escaped on the scoreboard with an early ‘break’, and no longer had problems closing her ticket to the eighth, although Diyas, punished for her mistakes, had her chance in the fifth game to have regained the disadvantage. For its part, in the men’s team, there was not such good news with the eliminations of Pablo Carreno and Pedro Martinez. The Asturian, fifteenth favorite, had to retire against the Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov suffering from physical discomfort after having lost the first seven games, while the Valencian could not get his best result in a ‘Grand Slam’ after falling to Serbian Dusan Lajovic in four sets by 6-7 (6), 7-5, 6-1 and 6-4.
