By Chris Oddo | Tuesday, July 7, 2015
Garbine Muguruza reached her first career Grand Slam semifinal with a straight-sets victory over Timea Bacsinszky on Tuesday at Wimbledon.
Photo Source: AP
When the last point was won, she sagged to her knees than sprawled on her back in the grass to soak up the moment. Garbine Muguruza had just become Spain’s first Wimbledon semifinalist in 18 years (Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario, 1997) with a 7-5, 6-3 victory over Switzerland’s Timea Bacsinszky.
We have our first semi-finalist. Garbine Muguruza defeats Timea Bacsinszky 7-5, 6-3. As you can see, she's jumping for joy.
Posted by Wimbledon on Tuesday, July 7, 2015
More important, the victory marked Muguruza’s first victory in a major quarterfinal after dropping her first two, both at Roland Garros (2014, 2015).
The Spaniard took down an in-form Bacsinszky with clutch serving and the aggressive baseline game that has seen her rise from a virtual unknown prior to 2014 to a lethal talent who possesses the game to ruffle the feathers of the most elite players in women’s tennis.
Muguruza saved three of four break points, and hit 17 winners to move through a very nip-and-tuck contest in straight sets. She broke Bacsinszky in the 12th game of the opener to take the lead and, after trading breaks with the Swiss in the second set, broke again for a 5-3 lead before serving the match out to 30.
“It was a very intense game, the last one,” Muguruza said. “I was so happy and relieved.”
Muguruza will face either Agnieszka Radwanska or Madison Keys in the semifinals.
But for a few minutes after her hard-fought win over Bacsinszky, she allowed herself to take in the gravity of her achievement. “It’s amazing,” she said. “I know it’s very hard to achieve this, so I’m very proud, and it’s good for Spain also.”