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Garbine Muguruza won her first grand slam title defeating Serena Williams in the women’s singles final at the 2016 French Open in straight sets.
REPORT: MUGURUZA WINS FRENCH OPEN
Final score
Serena Williams 5 4
Garbine Muguruza 7 6
First seed Serena Williams tonight looks to win her fourth French Open crown against fourth seed Garbine Muguruza, who displayed dominant form yesterday. Join The Roar for live scores and coverage from 11pm (AEST).
Williams has a perfect record when making the final at Roland Garros, having won three crowns from three finals. Of course, the clay surface isn’t exactly her favourite and she has won a grand total of 21 grand slams, making the final match 26 times.
That is a pretty incredible success record when making the big one, and for Muguruza overcoming nerves and experience will play a big part in determining her fortunes for this match.
Muguruza has made the quarter-finals at Roland Garros twice in her short career, while her only grand slam final came at Wimbledon last year, funnily enough against Williams where she went down in straight sets 6-4, 6-4.
The Spaniard took on Samantha Stosur yesterday in the semi-final, and after being in strong form was absolutely clinical. Coming into the match, she had said she wanted to get off to a fast start – and that is exactly what she did, racing out to a 5-1 lead in the first set.
However, nerves clearly got to her in the back end of the straight-sets victory as she squandered a double break before putting the match away with some powerful serving.
It is that power game, with her backhand on song, that will worry Williams in a big way.
Wiliams, on the other hand, after advancing through the tournament with relative ease ran into Kiki Bertens yesterday. The unseeded player challenged her in two enthralling sets, but in the end couldn’t get the job done as Williams advanced through, staying cool under pressure.
The one factor that may swing the way of Muguruza is Williams has often struggled with fatigue over the last years, and playing a couple of days straight won’t do anything good for her.
Apart from their match at Wimbledon last year, the pair have met on three other occasions and all of them in grand slams. Williams has twice beaten Muguruza in the Australian Open, while their one previous meeting at Roland Garros belonged to Muguruza, 6-2, 6-2.
Prediction
It’s impossible to go past Williams. Muguruza will start with a flurry, but she won’t be able to hold on over three sets as Williams takes her 22nd grand slam.
Williams in three sets.
Be sure to join The Roar for live coverage of the French Open women’s singles final from 11pm (AEST) and don’t forget to add your own comments in the section below.
Follow Scott on Twitter @sk_pryde