Australian Open 2022: Garbine Muguruza and Iga Swiatek made a winning start to their Australian Open journey against Clara Burel(6-3, 6-4), and Harriet Dart(6-3, 6-0) respectively.
The French native Clara Burel didn’t make a lasting impression in the first round as the Spaniard only needed 88 minutes for the victory.
Burel had a nightmare with her serves. Hitting almost a dozen double faults and only made 41% of her first serves. Facing most of the second serves, Muguruza had an easy time in returns.
The first set was tied at 3-3 and from that onwards Garbine Muguruza won seven of the eight games thus grabbing the first set 6-3 and leading 4-1 in the second set too.
Ultimately, though, she needed five match points to seal the victory. Interestingly, Burel saved three match points and broke Garbine to keep the game alive. However, the Spaniard took a 40-0 lead thus broke the serve to seal the match.
Garbine Muguruza: “I didn’t know really who I was facing. We’ve never played before. Very tricky,” she said. “You’re always nervous going out there on Rod Laver, which I love, and starting a Grand Slam campaign. I’ve always gone through the first round. [I’m] very happy the way I played and, of course, controlling the nerves.”
Iga Swiatek takes down Harriet Dart.
It was the British qualifier who started fiery taking 3-1 lead. The No.7 seed Iga Swiatek was not hoping for this type of start.
However, the Pole from 3-1 down, swept Britain. She won the last 11 games straight as 6-3, 6-0. It is her fourth year in a row clearing the first round.
Swiatek made nine of her 17 unforced errors for the match in the first four games and finished with 21 winners. After the slow start, she also rounded into the form on serve: in her last six service games, Swiatek lost just six points. Three of those came in the last game, as she served out the match from 15-40 down.
Iga Swiatek: “First rounds are always tricky … I told myself just to be patient. I’m playing really good in practices, so I had this faith in myself that I was going to find the rhythm somehow.”
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