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By Chris Oddo | Sunday January 15, 2016

 
Garbine Muguruza

Garbine Muguruza survived a tough battle with her opponent and with herself to reach the second round in Day 1.

Photo Source: AFP/William West

It was a bit of a rocky road for Spain’s Garbiñe Muguruza in her first-round encounter with New Zealand’s Marina Erakovic. But the former Grand Slam champion pushed nerves and early doubts aside to claim a satisfying 7-5, 6-4 win and take her place in the second round.

Live Blog: Stats, Tweets, Highlights and More in the Day 1 Live Blog

Muguruza, who carried a tender right thigh into the event, struggled with the injury in the first set, and after she saved a set point and claimed the opener, she headed off court for a tape job.

When she returned it appeared that she might have suffered something serious, but Muguruza drew upon her experience, stayed calm and eventually battled back from 4-1 down to win the final five games and advance.


Muguruza says it was maybe a little bit more mental than physical out there. “Just more mental, because I was nervous, too,” she told reporters after the match. The match was equal, pretty equal. It was just more like precaution, I think.”

Muguruza said there was no specific moment where she felt the injury, but that as the match wore on she became worried about the leg. She was forced to retire from the semifinals at Brisbane just over a week ago because of the injury and has spent the last week working on getting it up to snuff.

Clearly she’s not at 100 percent but nevertheless the fortitude that Muguruza displayed in a difficult situation is commendable.

“I think this match was definitely like more mental in certain situations of the match, so I'm pretty pleased, because even though I had a set point against in the first set and then I was 4-1 down, so I had to really forget about that and try to bring the best I had there,” she said.

The No.7 seed will face American Samantha Crawford in the second round. Though she has always advanced to the second round at Melbourne, she has yet to reach the quarterfinals.

 

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