“I lost to her not long ago, so I did something different,” Garbiñe Muguruza said after her 6-7 (4), 6-4, 6-2 win over Anett Kontaveit on Court Philippe Chatrier on Wednesday. “Different in a good way.”
Muguruza might have felt the need to add that last phrase because “different” hasn’t always meant “good” for her since she blazed her way to the championship at this tournament a year ago. After Roland Garros, she went just 13-13 for the rest of 2016. This season she has been marginally better, but in the last 12 months she has reached just one semifinal, and that was a week-and-a-half ago in Rome.
Is that all she needs? Last year a semifinal run in Rome was enough to catapult her all the way through Paris. Could Muguruza be the sport’s first French Open specialist? At the start of the event, she talked about how much she loves the city, and how happy she was to be back. This is what everyone says about Paris, of course, and what every tennis player says about any town where they’ve won a tournament. Even given that, though, Muguruza really did make a convincing case that she has a special connection with the city. Roland Garros is where she announced herself to the world by beating Serena Williams in 2014, where she has reached the quarterfinals or better the last three years and where she now has an 18-3 record.
Still, when Muguruza fell behind 1-4 in the first set, and was nearly broken again for 1-5, I wouldn’t have put money on her making a comeback. Kontaveit was the much more dynamic player, moving more easily and hitting the ball with more authority. Not only had she beaten Muguruza in their last match, but the Estonian had also beaten Angelique Kerber on her way to the quarterfinals in Rome. There was no reason to think her level would come down on Wednesday.