Keeping Calm, Carrying On

“Everybody starts from zero,” a grim but relieved Garbiñe Muguruza said after her first-round, razor-thin 6-2, 5-7, 6-4 win over Camila Giorgi at Wimbledon on Monday. “It’s a special surface.”

Did we detect just a little bit of sarcasm behind that word, “special”? If so, it was easy to understand why Muguruza would have her reservations about the grass at the All England Club. Following two weeks of very successful tennis on clay in Paris, where she won her first major title, Muguruza was thrown to the wolves, or at least the blades, of Centre Court in her opener. She was playing the second match of the fortnight there, which meant the unscarred turf was still lush and slippery. And in Giorgi, she was playing an opponent whose arrythmic, go-big-or-go-home game is tailor-made for a speedy surface like that.

“Wimbledon is a tricky tournament, the grass can give you a surprise sometimes,” Muguruza said—that hint of sarcasm still hadn’t left her voice. “The matches are more equal.”

For Muguruza, this one was a little too equal for comfort. Over the course of 20 minutes or so at the end of the second set and the start of the third, it appeared to be turning into the match of the No. 2 seed’s nightmares. Giorgi was finding the corners with her ultra-flat, ultra-hard ground strokes; one of the Italian’s forehands was clocked at 89 M.P.H.., not bad for someone listed at 119 pounds.

Often Giorgi seems determined to end rallies as quickly as possible, win or lose; but against Muguruza, she found a tactical pattern that worked for her: Down the line with the backhand to open up the point, crosscourt with the forehand to finish it. When Giorgi forced an errant forehand from Muguruza’s racquet to win the second set, her player box erupted. She had beaten the Spaniard in two of three previous meetings; her entourage seemed convinced that she was going to do it again.

Here was the Muguruza moment many of us had been waiting to see. Was the 22-year-old, we wondered as the tournament began, going to follow her breakthrough win at the French Open with a strong performance at Wimbledon? That’s what future No. 1 players from Chris Evert to Steffi Graf to Monica Seles to Serena Williams had done, even when they were young. Or was she going to fail to adjust, to the surface and the new expectations, and go out early? That’s what several of her colleagues—Petra Kvitova, Angelique Kerber, Sloane Stephens, Simona Halep, Eugenie Bouchard—had done recently after their own breakthrough performances.

And make no mistake, the expectations for Muguruza have arrived; not only is she supposed to be tennis’ next great champion, she’s supposed to be its next bankable star.

CAN GARBINE MUGURUZA BE THE NEW FACE OF WOMEN’S TENNIS?

That’s the question that BBC.comasked in its business section on Sunday. The answer, according to her management company, is a definitive yes.

“Her reach can be universal,” Fernando Soler, head of tennis at IMG, said. “The goal is to turn Garbiñe into a global star, and she is helping herself with her on-court performance.”

So is Vogue, which reported in May that:

THIS FRENCH OPEN STAR HAS TENNIS’S BEST BOMBSHELL HAIR

“A quick glance through Muguruza’s Instagram feed reveals that, whether strolling the streets in her adopted hometown of Geneva or touring the Basque countryside, her hair falls into beachy waves—a far cry from the power ponytail that’s her on-court signature.”

The two sides of the Muguruza coin were also evident in the reactions from two British commentators as she walked off court on Monday. While the woman in the booth talked about Muguruza's determination, her male colleague reminded us that she has a wonderful smile.

As cringe-worthy as that comment may have been, there is a lot to like about Muguruza. She plays with power, and walks and talks with poise. Her appeal will be wide—as long as she wins. But as the third set began against Giorgi, Muguruza seemed to be in danger of not winning. Her power game had gone awry. Her volleys were flying meters wide. Her poise had deserted her; she was muttering to herself, and frowning. When Giorgi held serve at the start of the third set, the Centre Court crowd buzzed. Politely, of course, but a bit ominously, too. The Italian had the momentum, and she was dictating.

Through the first four months of the season, this situation likely would have spelled disaster for Muguruza. During that stretch, bad typically turned to worse for her. Did she even want to be out there, I wondered more than once. Today, though, Muguruza took her time, kept her cool, concentrated on her serve, and stopped Giorgi in her tracks. Muguruza broke early in the set, and held out in impressively calm fashion for the win.

“It was very tough,” Muguruza said. “She played well. I like to play tough matches, it gives me more confidence...Sometimes you don’t win very beautiful.”

As for that “special” grass, Muguruza said she was happy with how she adjusted to it.

“You’ve really got to concentrate on your first shots,” she said of the slicker surface. “You’re really going to be in danger if you don’t go for it.”

Muguruza will likely be in danger again over the next two weeks. She reached the final at Wimbledon last year, but this long-legged six-footer is still vulnerable to the low and slow slice on grass. Luckily for her today, Giorgi doesn’t own that shot, but somebody she faces will.

For today, Muguruza lived up to the expectations. She didn't win "very beautiful," but she won. She started from zero but closed, in the final game, with four straight service winners. That’s how champs do it.