(MENAFN- Gulf Times) Garbine
Muguruza has not had the best of starts to her season. The reigning
Wimbledon champion and former World No 1 has struggled with form and
lost in the second round of the Australian Open to Hsieh Su-wei. A leg
injury has also not made it easier for the 24-year-old Spaniard to move
on the court.
But Muguruza has a reason to cheer now after she
reunited with her compatriot Conchita Martinez, the 1994 Wimbledon
champion. Martinez was in Muguruza's box throughout her triumph at All
England Club last year and is guiding her fellow Spaniard for the next
four hard-court tournaments, beginning from the Qatar Total Open, which
began yesterday.
Ahead of her second round match against Ying-Ying
Duan of China in Doha today, Muguruza, currently ranked fourth, shared
her excitement of having Martinez join her team and her goals for the
season.
Excerpts:
Since the Australian Open loss in the second round, how long were the racquets in the bag or were you back training soon?
Well,
I had time to rest and to prepare after the Australian Open. I went
back to Switzerland, and I actually went pretty fast to the court. I did
play a lot of tennis, actually. I wanted to forget a little bit how the
start of the season went, and I felt nice to just spend hours on the
court.
You were dealing with a bunch of little niggles in January. So physically how are you feeling?
I'm
feeling better. Right now I'm happy that all these training days have
gone well and I feel better. So hopefully nothing happens until I have
to compete.
What made you to join hands with Conchita Martinez again?
It's
a little bit of a new experience for me. Conchita and I, we've known
each other since I was little and she's always been a bit in the shadow,
you know, helping me here and there. And of course, everybody saw me
and her in Wimbledon and we had the best success possible.
I get
along well with her. And I thought it might be a good idea to have her
in the next couple of tournaments till Miami. And just have this new
experience. I was looking for this experience. Sam Sumyk will continue
being my main coach but I think it's going to be interesting.
I think
Conchita is a very calm person. And she has a lot of experience. This
is not easy to find and it isn't easy also to be in this difficult
competitive environment and to get along with somebody very good. I feel
I have an amazing team and I think I have one of the best coaches in
the tour, which is Sam. And now (I have) also some experience that is
going to help me, ‘the Conchita mind'. So yeah, I think it's good.
Do you talk about what it was like back in the day when Martinez was playing?
Yeah.
It is different era she played in, but at the end, you know, she's also
been a tennis player. And those things are there. The mental part of
the game and just the travelling or just a woman who has been tennis
player. Sometimes it's difficult to handle. So it's just good to have
her.
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