Garbine Muguruza explains how hard work and patience are paying off after reaching semi-finals

Australian Open
Garbine Muguruza

The past two years have been difficult for Garbine Muguruza, but her decision to just “hang in there” is paying dividends as she is into her first Australian Open semi-final.

Having won the French Open in 2016 and Wimbledon in 2017, many predicted Muguruza would add a few more Grand Slams to her collection over the next few years.

However, she struggled in 2018 and 2019 as she reached the latter stages of the majors only once and slumped to outside of the world top 20.

Not too many people expected her to do well at the Australian Open as she started this season as the world No 35, but nearly two weeks in and she is two wins away from lifting a third major.

The Spaniard has beaten fifth seed Elina Svitolina, ninth seed Kiki Bertens and 30th seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova en route to the semi-final where she will face fourth seed Simona Halep.

Speaking of her struggles and return to form, Muguruza said: “I think the toughest moment is when you work hard, work like before, or even harder, and you don’t feel like results are coming fast. Athletes sometimes can get a little bit desperate, get too impatient about it.

“It’s very tough to be for so many years in the top of the game, being that consistent. I feel like it’s something super hard to do. Barely few players can hold that for many, many years in a row.

“You just have to be patient and go through the rough moments, just hang in there and it will come back again.”

Being a two-time Grand Slam winner certainly gives you a bit of inspiration.

“I think once you have done it, it definitely gives you a certain confidence that you can handle two weeks’ competition, grand slam, playing many matches,” the former world No 1 said.

“Not a lot of people can say that they have done it. In my case, I know it’s where I feel the most motivated. I just don’t think too much about it. I’m just happy to be here, excited to see how far I can go.”

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Garbine Muguruza

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