Garbiñe Muguruza falls, again, and continues the tortuous loop in which this season translates for her.
She wants to, but she just can't.
She cannot escape the Spanish (6-4 and 6-0 against Greetje Minnen, in 61 minutes) from that devilish negative whirlpool that has trapped her in the first half of the year.
Defeat and premature exits have become a habit for a player who jumped onto the court this Wednesday as if she knew she had been sentenced and who competed from the first second as if she wanted everything to end very quickly, painlessly.
This last goodbye comes in two installments: the night, sealed with a very clear volley that against all odds crashes into the net, and a resumption that barely lasts 18 minutes against the 88th in the world.
Where the hell is Garbiñe?
More information
Badosa, in search of the click that resists
In full search of herself.
There is no lack of work, she says.
Nor motivation, she emphasizes.
She searches and searches for the formula, they repeat from her team.
The reality, however, is that the tennis player is unable to take flight and that beyond regularities, profiles and ways of understanding the profession, she is unable to find herself.
The allusion to that intermittent nature that she has has ended up being accepted, but the sequence of the last few months describes a higher problem.
First round at Roland Garros, first round at Wimbledon.
The circumstance was acceptable for another player, but not for her, who not so long ago came to rule the circuit and who five years ago celebrated a superlative achievement in these same parts, just like a year before in Paris.
“Where is Garbiñe?
Is it a matter of tennis or of trust?” This newspaper asks him.
And the former number one, that tennis player then called to take advantage of the progressive exit of Serena Williams and set the pace in a new era, due to conditions and appetite, replies: “I suppose it will be a bit of both.
I guess more mentally, because tennis-wise the work has been done, but I can't fit the mentality and tennis at the same time.
But I have been very close in other games and I have not achieved it, and that has gradually affected me.
Emotionally it is a difficult moment”.
The puzzle that doesn't fit
This season, Muguruza's journey – tenth in the world and who three years ago also skidded in the premiere of the British
major
– can be summed up in five first rounds (Indian Wells, Rome, Roland Garros, Berlin and Wimbledon), six second rounds (Melbourne, Australian Open, Dubai, Madrid, Rabat and Eastbourne) and some quarters (Doha).
There are 12 losses and 8 wins.
Absence for a month (April) due to discomfort in the left shoulder.
“I don't give him so much, so much concern either, because I'm working well.
I'll wait for the right time for all of this to fit together.
It has not been my Wimbledon, logically”, she replies;
“Now I look at the hard court tour, there are a number of tournaments that I like and the US Open.
Let's see if I can play better there.
This year I am not having such big goals, but simply winning a series of games again”.
Muguruza and Minnen, after the greeting on the net.ANDY RAIN (EFE)
Muguruza argues that the pieces simply do not fit.
The 28-year-old Spaniard sealed last year by making history, becoming the first Spanish woman to win the Women's Cup (in Guadalajara, Mexico).
“There is a big difference between how I was playing last year and this year.
The work is still being done the same, but I am lacking determination in some important moments or maybe more clarity, because I have had many games in which I was dominating or very close [to winning].
Today was a pretty bad game.
I have not felt well.
I have lacked level, match after match”.
This Wednesday's episode, which had actually started the night before and had to be postponed due to rain falling on London, ends with some tears and an inner volcano erupting.
“I am the one who feels the most the fact of having more difficulties, because I feel it on the track”, she points out.
“She has played very well.
She has gone out with one more gear than me, because yesterday I noticed it and today too.
It is not an excuse.
Logically I didn't like her because it's weird to play like that, but no, it's not an excuse.
It is clear that it has not been a good thing, ”she adds with a sad tone.
Optimism: “I see the light, I have magic”
Behind those words there is impotence, but Garbiñe, who in the last two years has not managed to cross the barrier of the round of 16 in a big one, does not give up.
"Yes, I see the light," she indicates;
“What you have to do is keep going, keep going and keep going, that's what tennis has taught me.
The time will come when she turns him around.
I'm not that far, I need to get the dynamic back.
It's a matter of trust and controlling those games that have escaped me, trust is everything.
I want to have fewer games to think about and play more games.
I would ask to have a good tournament to get rid of this bad feeling”.
The situation is not new for her, who in her day (between 2018 and 2019) already managed a crisis of higher dimensions.
So is she ready to reverse the situation and find the North again?
"Yes, I can," he replies to EL PAÍS.
“I have won unthinkable tournaments before I started playing them.
I have not been the most stable player nor do I want to be;
that has shown me that I have a magic;
I don't want to depend on it, but sometimes it tends to come out of it and I have the talent to make it happen.
I want to continue working and I will turn it around sooner or later.
That's a bit like my tennis, really.
Nor do I give him so much, so much concern, because I am working well.
I'll wait for the right time for all of this to come together."
You can follow EL PAÍS Deportes on
and
, or sign up here to receive
our weekly newsletter
.
