After beating 10th-seeded Angelique Kerber and 5th-seeded Caroline Wozniacki in back-to-back rounds in order to reach her second ever Grand Slam quarterfinal, Spain’s Garbiñe Muguruza, currently the 20th best ranked woman in the world, had ahead of her a player who’s on the rise as much as herself: Timea Bacsinszky, a semifinalist at the French Open and seeded 15th at the All-England Club.
Having already beaten her Swiss counterpart at a slam this year – a three-set triumph at the Australian Open – Muguruza had in this quarterfinal showdown history ahead of her. Despite entering Wimbledon with a 1-2 record on grass this season, the Spaniard was just two sets away from becoming the first woman from her country to reach the semifinals at the grass major since 1997, when Arantxa Sanchez Vicario did so.
The first set was a thrilling, tense – but solid – display of tennis. Serving first, the Spaniard squandered a 40-0 lead, but held. Bacsinszky followed with a hold to 30, triggering a series of holds from both players that was threatened for the first time in the fifth game, when the 20th-seeded woman faced a pair of break points – which ended up being the only ones she would face in the set – before holding for 3/2. Bacsinszky, on the other hand, would only serve with her back against the wall in the last game before the tiebreaker. Despite acing to bring a game point, a pair of errors gave Muguruza the first set point of the match – and her first break point of the day. She did not even blink, clinching it after an unforced mistake from Bacsinszky and closing out the first set, 7/5 in 50 minutes.
The second frame, unlike the first, showed off some shaky tennis, as both players were off to a sloppy start of set, exchanging breaks – with the Venezuela-born Spaniard serving ahead. The first hold came in the third game, as the Spaniard won the game to go up 2/1. Bacsinszky followed with holds on her own to level the second frame at 2 and 3, before Muguruza streaked her way. The 21-year old held for 4/3, and with the Swiss serving, soon went up 15-40. Despite the Swiss saving the first break point with a forehand winner, Muguruza fired a backhand winner of her own, clinching the definitive break.
Serving for a place in the semifinals of the most traditional tennis tournament of the world, the 2014 Hobart winner confidently confirmed her game, despite hitting an unforced error on her first match point. A forehand forced error from Timea Bacsinszky sealed the deal.
Muguruza, who has to her name only one other tour semifinal this year – in Dubai, where she lost to Karolina Pliskova – will face either Poland’s Agnieszka Radwanska – a runner-up at Wimbledon in 2012.