Coach Sam Sumyk and Fed Cup captain Conchita Martinez both say it took Garbine Mugurza a while before she became comfortable with being a top player.
"It was very tough at the beginning of the year for Garbine, dealing with the mental side. She thought that she had to win every match,"Martinez said to the Independent. “She was very tense and nervous in some match. But if you work hard and settle into yourself and you go for it, at the end things are going to work out."
The world No. 2 beat Serena Williams in the Roland Garros final just a few short weeks ago. Last year at Wimbledon, however, Williams topped Muguruza 6-4, 6-4 in what was the Spaniard's first ever Grand Slam final.
Following her loss at Wimbledon, Muguruza struggled for a couple of months before reaching the final in Wuhan, winning Beijing, and reaching the semifinals of the WTA Finals in Singapore.
At the start of the 2016 season, the 22-year-old didn't play well until mid-May, when she reached the semifinals of Rome. By the time the Spaniard arrived at Roland Garros, her confidence had returned.
“It was a question of taking it step by step, building one little stone at a time,” Sumyk told the Independent. “Every time we just tried to do a little bit better. Above all, we learned from every defeat she suffered from the start of the year."
Smyuk was the longtime coach of former No. 1 Victoria Azarenka, and last year he worked with Eugenie Bouchard.
After winning her maiden Slam, Muguruza went to Mallorca where she fell in the first round to Kirsten Flipkens.
The Spaniard will play Camila Giorgi in the first round of Wimbledon.