‘A nice relief to be able to hold a champion’s trophy,’ says Garbine Muguruza after Dubai success

A big weight was lifted off Garbine Muguruza’s shoulders after she finally ended her long wait for WTA Tour trophy No 8 with the former world No 1 admitting “it means a lot”.
The Spaniard’s Dubai Tennis Championship title was her first in nearly two years as her previous trophy came at the 2019 Monterrey Open.
Despite her lack of trophy success, Muguruza had been one of the form players in recent weeks as she also reached the Yarra Valley Classic and Qatar Open finals only to finish runner-up to Ashleigh Barty and Petra Kvitova respectively.
Naturally, the two-time Grand Slam winner was pleased when she finally cleared the final hurdle in Dubai courtesy a 7-6 (8-6), 6-3 victory over Czech Barbora Krejcikova.
The moment of TRIUMPH 🙌🇪🇸@GarbiMuguruza | #DDFTennis pic.twitter.com/usgHj1DVWR
— wta (@WTA) March 13, 2021
“It means a lot, it’s never easy to win titles,” she said. “It doesn’t happen often, and I’m excited that it happened now, after a few finals that didn’t go my way. A nice relief to be able to hold a champion’s trophy.”
She added: “Everybody that is playing well and feels good [any] week can get the trophy, this is how hard women’s tennis is now. Very happy that I managed for two weeks to be able to reach the last match, because it’s never easy.
“You have all these opponents, having to play ten matches in a row, makes it difficult. It’s very hard, and I’m happy that I managed well. Physically it was hard but I was happy that I could handle that.”
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