Muguruza takes a jug of cold water

The sun was shining, but the day turned out crooked for Garbiñe Muguruza and it was most inspiring for Alizé Cornet, a torment all the time, fireproof, rough, veteran.

A bone.

The 31-year-old Frenchwoman does not have remarkable results in the big ones –she has never crossed the barrier of the round of 16–, but she is one of those rivals with whom it is not convenient to cross paths in these tricky and dangerous first rounds.

The Spanish knew it, who for the first time in a long time landed in a big with the poster of favorite, again, a magnificent feeling.

But this Thursday (double 6-3, in 1h 27m) everything came together: one did everything well, the other too many things wrong and, as a background, a somewhat bumpy start to the season that has not helped.

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“It's a tough day. I didn't feel my tennis, neither my strokes nor my serve. In general, my game was not there. It's been a stressful start to the year and physically I haven't felt all that well either”, explained the three in the world, who sealed last year like a shot and became the first Spanish woman to triumph in the Masters Cup. From Guadalajara (Mexico), where he was crowned, he went on vacation and after two weeks off he traveled to Marbella, Puente Romano, to complete the preseason with his team. "The whole team caught covid, except me, so it was a bit difficult to maintain training and preparation," he told reporters.

A few days before the trip to Australia, at the gates of Christmas, all the components except her were tested and the alarm went off. Garbiñe (28 years old) prepared herself in Barcelona and on the 26th she took the flight to Adelaide, which was theoretically going to be her first preparatory stop, but she chose not to play to make sure she did not also test positive. He then traveled to Sydney unaccompanied, with the aim of at least acclimatizing to the demanding conditions of the Antipodes, and in the days that followed, the rest of the team members gradually joined. In other words, the set-up on Australian soil was not what was expected or desired.

In total, two weeks of solo training.

“I was able to compete in Sydney [defeat against Kasatkina in the second match] and in the end what we are all going through has accumulated: yes, no, whether you travel or not…”, lamented the two-time Grand Slam champion, who came stumbled to the Open and despite drawing in the first round against the French Clara Burel, you did not have everything with you and this Thursday ran into a very plugged-in rival (61st in the WTA) who did not give her respite.

He squeezed and squeezed Cornet, and there Muguruza's seams were seen.

Short of preparation, the Spanish was lost between errors (33), poor service percentages and bad decisions.

No

ball was attempted and he conceded 12.

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“She has played very well, much more aggressive than she usually is. Everything has fallen from his side. I would have liked to improve the selection of the shots, I have made too many unforced errors by rushing, and then at other times... Anyway. I have not chosen well how to play ”, he x-rayed. “It's been pretty stressful this month,” he said, “and I'm leaving a lot sooner than I thought. It's a bad result, but we have to look forward and analyze so that this doesn't happen again. Now comes the tour of Dubai [February 14-19] and Doha [20-26], which I like. It only remains to continue, continue and continue to recover the good feelings”.

Now, his plans go through some reflection and then three weeks of filming before reappearing in the desert, where last year he achieved a redemptive title, in Dubai, and was one step away from another in Doha.

“You have to calm down and get back to training well.

It hurts a lot, because it's the Australian Open and today I'm going to have a hard time, but from tomorrow I'm going to start planning what I'm going to do with my team.

Now yes, together”.

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