Garbine Muguruza defeats Elise Mertens 6-4 7-6(5) in the semifinal in Dubai on Friday. Muguruza will face Barbora Krejcikova in the final. The battle lasted 2 hours and 7 minutes. This will be her most significant achievement in this competition. In the past, the best she could do in the past was reaching the semifinal in 2015 and 2018. Here you can see her history at this event.
Muguruza added to her prize money $ 77,000 after winning this match. She has won already $ 164,000 after this win. If she wins the next match, the Spaniard will add $ 57,500 to her earnings to get in total $ 221,500 in total.
Muguruza was elated about the outcome of the contest. She commented:
“You have to be all the time concentrated, otherwise she will come back. I didn’t lose the focus even though I couldn’t close it – I was just looking forward to the next opportunity.”
Highlights Garbine Muguruza vs. Elise Mertens Dubai Duty Free Championships – Dubai
Stats: aces, double faults, breaks, winners
2h:07
At the end of the match, the Spaniard scored 88 points vs. the Belgian’s 77.
Muguruza
Garbine won this match even if she had a tough time converting her break points after she converted only 38% (5/13) of the procured opportunities.
Mertens
On the other side, Elise was not so effective in converting her break points (only 40% – 4/10). That was one of the key issues for her loss.
After this match, the head to head between Muguruza and Mertens is 2-0 for Garbine.
Draw and next match H2H: Garbine Muguruza vs. Barbora Krejcikova – stats
Muguruza will play Krejcikova in the final.
There is no head to head record between Garbine Muguruza and Barbora Krejcikova since this will be the first time that they will fight against each other in the main tour.
Live score progression and stats
Krejcikova got off on the right foot in the set after breaking Muguruza in the 1st game (1-0). Yet, Muguruza refused to bow to come back to break the Belgian 3 times in the 2nd (1-1), in the 4th (3-1) gamein the 10th game before winning the set (6-4) after breaking his opponent in the last game.
There was a pivotal moment in this set when Garbine won 4 consecutive games in the 1st set so as to bring the game count from 0-1 to 4-1.
The Spaniard lost 12 points on serve (18-12). On the losing side, Mertens conceded 15 points on serve (15-15).
Garbine won the set after she broke Mertens in the 8th (5-3) and in the 12th (6-6) game. The Belgian tried to stage a comeback breaking in the 9th (5-4) and in the 11th (5-6) game. Anyhow, Garbine didn’t lose the lead to eventually clinch the set at the following tiebreak at 5.
The Spaniard failed to serve out the set when leading 5-3 to be broken at 40.
Tiebreak
The Spaniard won 3 minibreaks in the 6th (3-3), 7th (4-3) and 12th (7-5) point. On the other side, Elise won a minibreak in the 4th (3-1) point.
This was the tiebreak sequence: 1-0, 1-1, 1-2, 1-3, 2-3, 3-3, 4-3, 5-3, 6-3, 6-4, 6-5, 7-5
Muguruza converted 22% of her break points (2/9). She had 9 break points opportunities in the 2nd (1-0 15-40, 30-40 and 40-A), the 8th (4-3 0-40), the 10th (5-4 15-40, 30-40 and 40-A) and the 12th game (5-6 15-40 and 30-40). Furthermore, on the other side, Mertens converted 50% of her break points (2/4). She had her opportunities in the 1st (0-0 30-40), the 9th (3-5 30-40 and 40-A) and the 11th game (5-5 15-40).
They played 96 points. Garbine won 4 points more than the Belgian (50-46). Garbine dropped 18 points on serve (28-18). on the other side of the court, Mertens conceded 22 points on serve (28-22).
Tennis Scores in Dubai
- Barbora KrejcikovaKrejcikova – Jil TeichmannTeichmann (7-5 6-2) – Stats and score progression
- Garbine MuguruzaMuguruza – Elise MertensMertens (6-4 7-65) – Stats and score progression
Upcoming matches
- Barbora KrejcikovaKrejcikova – Garbine MuguruzaMuguruza (0-0) – H2H details and stats
