Garbiñe Muguruza on the “very hard blow” of losing her tennis

When the calendar page turned, Garbiñe Muguruza had every reason to believe 2022 could be her year. She had just become the first Spaniard in history to win a WTA Finals when she cooled off a red-hot Anett Kontaveit to close out 2021 with a bang. That triumphant run in Guadalajara also propelled her back inside the Top 3 of the WTA rankings.

Six months into this season, it’s been anything but a continuation of those happy memories. Muguruza has played 20 matches; she’s won eight of them. A two-time major champion, the 28-year-old has gone just 1-3 on the Grand Slam stage.

After dropping her Wimbledon opener to Greet Minnen, 6-4, 6-0—a match where Muguruza couldn’t hold back tears during the final changeover—the former world No. 1 uploaded her sentiment about the rough patch on Twitter.

“These last six months have been very hard. Dealing with defeats, frustration and pressure,” she wrote Thursday. “Competing in RG and Wimbledon, tournaments that I love, with all the preparation and effort that my team has made, not finding my tennis has been emotionally, a very hard blow.”

Despite the inability to get any momentum going, Muguruza will remain in the Top 10 after the grass-court major concludes. There will even be ample opportunities to add points during the North American hard-court swing, given 2021 exits in the second round at Canada’s National Bank Open, third round at Cincinnati and fourth round at the US Open.

“To my followers and those who place their expectations on me, [this is] just to say that I’m sorry and I hope that the remaining six months of 2022 are more bearable and I can at least find those good feelings again,” Muguruza concluded.

No apology necessary. We hope you find them, Garbi, for 2022 can still be yours.