SINGAPORE—Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario, who won four Grand Slam singles titles, has high hopes for fellow Spaniard Garbine Muguruza. The 22-year-old is at a career-high ranking of No. 3 and reached this year’s Wimbledon final, which she lost to world No. 1 Serena Williams. Muguruza recently won her first WTA Premier 5 tournament in Beijing, and the previous week reached the final in Wuhan.
Muguruza is playing the White Group in the WTA Finals and beat Lucie Safarova on Monday, 6-3, 7-6 (4).
“Garbine has the game that loves the power. She's very tall and very big,” said Sanchez-Vicario. “She likes to play against the best players always. So she maybe needs more continuation to do better in all the tournaments, but expectations are great in Spain. I'm really happy and excited to watch her play here. She did very well now after Wimbledon, and in China.”
A former No. 1, Sanchez-Vicario is the last Spanish woman to win a Grand Slam singles title, doing so at the 1998 French Open. Another Spaniard, Conchita Martinez, won Wimbledon in 1994. Sanchez-Vicario believes Muguruza can similarly go far at the majors.
“I love the way she plays and her mentality,” Sanchez said. “She's a great player and person. I'm really happy. I mean, we have the long wait. Was good, but now we have two players. It's excellent.”