By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Wednesday November 17, 2021
After winning the title at Guadalajara, and becoming the first Spanish player to win the WTA Finals singles title, Garbiñe Muguruza tells reporters that she is enjoying herself on tour like never before, and that 2021 may have been her best year ever.
“I always believe I made finals of a Grand Slam, reached the rankings, I'm like, ‘I have the tennis, I just have to show it.’ It's hard, of course,” she said. “This is just another proof that I think I'm actually in the best moment of my career. The experience I have now, the tennis, the way I handle myself, I think it's actually much better than before.”
Muguruza has shown some truly brilliant tennis over the last two years, including making a run to the Australian Open in 2020, and she appears to also found a certain calm since joining forces with coach Conchita Martinez a second time.
She told reporters that, for those reasons, 2021 may have been her best year.
“I think it's a very good season overall,” the ten-time WTA titlist said. “Won three titles. I think it's the year that I've won the most titles and made finals also. I felt like a very stable year with myself also.
“Of course, there is a little ups and downs, injuries and stuff. Overall I think it's the best year for me. I might not have won a Grand Slam, but I deeply feel like I've been happier and more stable, less dramatic, and in general very happy about it.”
Muguruza, at 28, has the potential to be a major player on tour over the next few seasons. She is a great player on all surfaces and, with the current landscape on the tour skewing younger, there really isn’t a dominant force to stop her if she plays the way she played in Guadalajara this week.
She has not won a major title since 2017, but her exploits at this year’s WTA Finals prove that she is not far off.
But for now, celebration is in order.
“We're going to have some tequila, have fun, lose all the tension we've been having and holding,” she said. “I think the whole team deserves it.”