2020 WTA Indian Wells fantasy tennis: Muguruza claims eighth WTA Tour title
GARBINE Muguruza has won her eighth WTA Tour title by taking out the 2020 Indian Wells final against ninth seed, Aryna Sabalenka. The Spaniard had a huge fight on her hands as the two best players from the tournament clashed in a two-hour and 46-minute final worthy of the decider. The title handed Muguruza her first Premier Mandatory final after a couple of Grand Slams (Roland Garros and Wimbledon) and an impressive win at Cincinnati in 2017. She also has back-to-back titles at Monterrey and won at Hobart and Beijing for her first two career titles.
The first set of the match saw the ninth seed Belarusian take an advantage midway through, breaking in the sixth game to go 5-2 up once she held. Muguruza managed to hold again to force Sabalenka to serve out the match, but the hard-hitting talent did just that, converting with a couple of winners in the final game to win it 6-3. The second set was even closer with the match ticking past 90 minutes by the end of it, going into a tiebreaker after neither player could seem to break. Desperate at 2-4 down in the tiebreaker, Muguruza fought back to win the final five points of the set to take out the tiebreaker 7-4 and level proceedings at a set apiece.
In an equally close deciding set, the two-time Grand Slam winner stepped up having broken her opponent early – before being broken back – but then breaking her at a crucial time in the match and holding serve to take out the set and match. It meant the 3-6 7-6 7-5 victory moved Muguruza up into 12th overall in the world rankings and was her first title of the year after the near-miss at Melbourne Park in January. For Sabalenka, she moved from 11th into a career-high eighth overall in the world, within grasping distance of the top five.
Both players are set to compete in Miami next week, with Muguruza drawn on a path to potentially meet world number one Ash Barty in the Round of 16 – having defeated her in the semis here in Indian Wells – while Sabalenka has drawn a terribly unlucky draw with Naomi Osaka potentially in her path in the final 16.
FINAL RESULT:
[14] Garbine Muguruza (ESP) defeated [9] Aryna Sabalenka (BLR) 3-6 7-6 7-5
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