Birthday girl Garbiñe Muguruza celebrated her 22nd birthday with a win over Mirjana Lucic-Baroni, which also qualified her for the 2015 WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global. Having made the WTA Finals last year on the doubles side with partner Carla Suarez Navarro, this will be Muguruza’s first time playing singles at the WTA Finals. The current world number five has had a superb year, especially at the biggest tournaments in the world.

Muguruza’s 2015 Season Highlights

Garbiñe Muguruza started her year at the Apia International where she made the quarter finals, beating top 15 players Sara Errani and Agnieszka Radwanska along the way. The following week, Muguruza made the fourth round of the Australian Open for the second successive year by defeating Timea Bacsinszky, before losing to world number one Serena Williams. A couple of weeks later, the Spaniard attempted to lead Spain to victory against Romania in Fed Cup action. Despite winning both of her singles rubbers against Irina-Camelia Begu and world number three Simona Halep, Muguruza was unable to win the decisive doubles rubber with compatriot Anabel Medina Garrigues, which ultimately costed them the tie. Two weeks later, the 21-year-old born in Caracas, Venezuela regrouped from her Fed Cup disappointment, with a semi final showing at the WTA Premier level tournament in Dubai. Muguruza played well when it mattered all week, but was just unlucky to come out on the losing end of a thrilling encounter with fellow WTA rising star Karolina Pliskova. Despite not having a great clay court season, Muguruza rebounded well at the French Open — when it really mattered. En route to reaching her second consecutive quarter final at Roland Garros, Garbiñe Muguruza defeated 11th seed Angelique Kerber and 28th seed Flavia Pennetta, before losing to eventual finalist Lucie Safarova.

Muguruza had a disastrous grass court swing before the 2015 Wimbledon Championships, winning just one match in three attempts. Admittedly, the then-Spanish number two said she didn’t like playing on grass, which predominantly had to do with how fast the ball came off of the surface, and how low the bounces can be. Muguruza loves to take the ball early and when she has time, she can hit any one off of a tennis court. But on grass, she doesn’t have the luxury of time and has often struggled on the surface because of that.

Coming into Wimbledon, there weren’t many expectations on Muguruza and she seemed to use that to her advantage. Without the pressure, expectations, and all of the media attention, the Spaniard and 20th seed at SW19 played extremely well to reach her maiden Grand Slam final. After defeating the dangerous Varvara Lepchenko and Mirjana Lucic-Baroni respectively, Muguruza faced off against Angelique Kerber for the second time in less than a month. Both women gave it their all but in the end, it was Muguruza who prevailed in three sets. In the fourth round, the Venezuelan-born Spaniard faced fifth seed Caroline Wozniacki whom she beat handily by playing lights out tennis, leaving Wozniacki at a loss for answers. As a result, the 21-year-old advanced to her third quarterfinal at a Grand Slam in a span of 18 months, an incredible feat for someone so young in their professional development. In the quarter finals, Muguruza powered past Timea Bacsinszky — who was on a fifteen match winning streak earlier this season — to reach her maiden Grand Slam semi final. For a place in the final at Wimbledon, Muguruza had to overcome 2012 finalist, Agnieszka Radwanska.

The Spaniard hit the ground running in this semi final encounter, racing out to a 6-2, 3-1 lead in what was one of the biggest matches of her career to date. Radwanska fought back by winning five games in a row to force a decider, but Muguruza kept her composure and broke in the sixth game of the final set. In the end, that break of serve proved to be decisive as Garbiñe Muguruza served out the match at the first time of asking, advancing to the Wimbledon final. If she were to win her maiden Grand Slam title, Muguruza would have to defeat arguably the best tennis player to ever lift a tennis racquet, Serena Williams. A lot was at stake for both women — Muguruza was going for her first major title, while Williams was aiming to complete the “Serena Slam” (where she was looking to win four consecutive Grand Slam singles title, but not in the same calendar season). In this final, it was the Spaniard who started the better of the two, breaking early before the American and world number one stormed back to take the opening set 6-4.

Less than a half hour later, Williams found herself up a set and 5-1, just four points away from completing the “Serena Slam”. However, Muguruza had other ideas. With some of the resolve that she showed all-tournament, the 21-year-old was not prepared to let this title slip away so easily. She recovered both breaks and all of a sudden, she was only trailing 4-5, on serve. Unfortunately, all of the hard work she had done was quickly washed away as Williams broke to love to win her 21st Grand Slam singles title. Despite coming out on the losing end of this high quality final, Muguruza made a name for herself and sent a strong and clear message to her fellow WTA players, implying that she was going to be a force to be reckoned with in the years to come.

After her historic and magical run to the Wimbledon final, Muguruza was unable to translate the same success onto the American hard courts, winning just one of the four matches she played. To her credit, she did rebound nicely during the Asian swing with new coach Sam Sumyk, by reaching the final of the final Premier 5 event of the season — the Dongfeng Motor Wuhan Open. Coming into the China Open in Beijing this week, Muguruza looked fatigued after all of her exploits in Wuhan, but was able to play well enough to beat Irina Falconi and Mirjana Lucic-Baroni to qualify for her the WTA Finals on her 22nd birthday.

What Muguruza’s Qualification Means

With her win over Lucic-Baroni, Garbiñe Muguruza is the fourth player to qualify for the WTA Finals in Singapore, which will be played later this month. Due to Serena Williams’ withdrawal, the Spanish number one will be the third seed in Singapore, assuming no one withdraws or surpasses her on the Road to Singapore leaderboard. Muguruza will also be the first Spanish woman to qualify for the Year-End Championships since Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario did so in 2001. Her qualification also provides further proof of the resurgence of Spanish women’s tennis. After Conchita Martinez and Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario hung up their racquets, Spain was desperately looking for a new tennis superstar. But now with the likes of Garbiñe Muguruza, Carla Suarez Navarro and Lara Arruabarrena beginning to make shockwaves around the tennis world, Spanish women’s tennis might be on its ascent back up on the WTA tour.