Dubai: Former world No. 1 Garbine Muguruza has admitted that staying at the top of women’s tennis is a task that is going to get even harder as time goes by.
Born in Caracas, Venezuela, Muguruza’s big break came when she won the French Open in 2016, and followed it up with a second Grand Slam crown at Wimbledon a year later. That handed her the world number one spot in the first half of September 2017- the 24th woman to do so — a position that she managed to retain for four weeks before surrendering it to Romanian Simona Halep.
“Being world number one is important. I always have it in my mind to be able to fight for that position. I remember it was a great feeling to be there, even though it’s tough. But I want to fight for that,” Muguruza told media at the round table media meeting on Tuesday.
“I know it’s the hardest one, but I’m going to be there, at least I will try to be there,” she added.
Drawn as the second seed at this week’s Dubai Duty Free Women’s Open, Muguruza — who went down in three sets to Petra Kvitova in last weekend’s Qatar Open — starts her campaign against gutsy American teenager Catherine Catherine CiCi Bellis on Wednesday.
“When you’re No. 1, you feel like every tournament you play, you kind of almost have to win it, you have to always maintain a super high level against everyone you play because everybody’s playing super relaxed with nothing to lose. You feel a lot of pressure. I think it is a lot of things to control,” the 24-year-old Spaniard said.
“It’s just that you realise a lot of things when you’re up there. You’re like, OK, I’m here and I can’t go further up. All I can do is go down as there are all these girls that want my spot and I have to defend it. So you end up having this alarm all the time,” she added.
Having experienced what it is to be at the top before, Muguruza has now set her mind on reclaiming a position that she believes is truly hers. Last week was a start as she won consecutive matches for the first time this season in only in her fourth tournament of the year to author the biggest move in the season-ending Race to Singapore.
Thanks to her appearance in the Qatar Open final, the Spaniard — who has qualified for each of the last three editions of the WTA Finals — has moved up 38 spots to No. 7 in the Race to Singapore this week. “Singapore is like a way of saying I was one of the best players of the year. I’m here competing against the best. Everybody wants to be in that tournament. It means I’ve been playing good and winning. So it’s definitely a goal every year for me,” she said.
