Garbine Muguruza’s coach, Alejo Mancisidor, says the disappointment of losing the Wimbledon final to Serena Williams on Saturday is tempered by the fact that his charge showed a lot of heart in fighting back to make the second set competitive.
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Muguruza, 21, had dropped five consecutive games in the second set before mounting an inspired rally to get back on serve.
“This is, for me, the best part from this final,” he said. “Because it’s not the same way to go out after losing almost ten games in a row than to have the chance to serve to go to 5-all. This says a lot about her.”
Others agree.
“It was an unbelievable turnaround actually,” said Mats Wilander from the Live at Wimbledon desk after the final. “Credit to Muguruza because she hung in there mentally and tactically she was still trying to go for her shots… There were some brilliant points and retrieving by both players at the end of the match.”
Mancisidor said in an interview with ESPN’s Pam Shriver after the final that achieving consistent results is job No. 1. He says he’s aware that some players have difficulty after reaching elite status for the first time (Muguruza will enter the Top 10 next week at No. 9), and he doesn’t want his player to fall into that trap.
“We already talked so many times before about [maintaining consistency after big wins],” he said. “Last year she played quarterfinals French Open and then barely won any matches [for the rest of] the year. This year she played quarterfinals at the French Open and we said ‘Not again,’ and she played finals here. So now we’re going to say: ‘Let’s think and be smart because there are so many young players that this happened to, and we’re going to try hard not to have it happen to us.”
Mancisidor says that more experience and more maturity will make a big difference for Muguruza in the future. The Spaniard has played ten less majors (11) than Serena Williams has won (21).
“I think mostly the mental part because she is very young,” he said. “She’s very young. She’s 21 and it’s so tough to compete against players like Serena, Sharapova. I think it’s mentally she has to be more mature, and hopefully she will be able to play more finals against them.”