French Open 2016: Muguruza beats Williams to claim title
June 4, 2016
Muguruza missed a series of Championship points in the ninth game on Williams' serve as the pressure started to tell. But despite losing that game, she raced into a 40-0 lead in the following game before an inch-perfect lob brought tears to the Spaniard's eyes and huge cheers from the Roland Garros crowd.
"Congratulations to Garbine. She played really well today," said Williams, who confirmed that she had been slightly troubled by an adductor problem.
"I could have served better, made a lot of errors on return, but I did try hard out there."
Muguruza only dropped one set all tournament - the first she played - and despite the gap in Grand Slam experience, she wasn't cowed by what her opponent threw at her. The Spaniard consistently hit the lines with powerful shots on both forehand and backhand and forced Williams into a series of errors. She was particularly fierce on Williams' second serve.
Williams, who has won this tournament three times and has 21 Grand Slam singles titles in all, started brightly, forcing a break point in the fourth game, but in a sign of things to come, Muguruza seized the moment and forced an error from her American opponent with a powerful first serve.
The fourth-seeded Spaniard, runner-up at Wimbledon last year, kept her cool despite missing her first two set points to take the first set after nearly an hour.
She maintained her momentum in the second, breaking Williams in the first set. The American responded, breaking straight back, before Muguruza again broke the Williams serve.
As the final lob dropped in, the Spaniard checked that the shot landed inside the line before bringing her hands to her face, sinking to her knees, then onto the court.