Romania’s Simona Halep was playing her first tournament since being upset by Mirjana Lucic-Baroni in the third round of the US Open and she stumbled at the first hurdle, at the hands of aggressive Garbine Muguruza in the second round of the $2,440,070 Dongfeng Motor Wuhan Open.
The seed No.2 Halep cruised through the first set 6-2, but then found herself trailing 4-0 in the second set and as Muguruza won that one 6-2, she continued her dominance in the decider, again winning four straight games for an eventual 2-6 6-2 6-3 victory. Halep’s differential of winners to unforced errors was -17, while Muguruza’s was positive.
Remember, in the end of May, the world No.22 Muguruza made headlines by ousting Serena Williams from the French Open in the second round?
All the first four second-round matches that took place in Wuhan this Tuesday were upsets. Besides Halep, No.11 seed Sara Errani fell to Alison Riske 6-4 6-4, qualifier Timea Bacsinszky stunned No.13 seed and recent US Open semifinalist Ekaterina Makarova 6-4 6-1 and world No.34 Elina Svitolina disposed of 26th-ranked Sabine Lisicki 7-6(3) 6-3. (source: WTA Tennis, photo: Jimmie48)
Muguruza is playing her best season – she has a big potential to become one of the major players in WTA. Hopefully, she will work really hard during the off season to be prepared for the next one and she will start winning from the beginning