Garbine Muguruza, the two-time Gand Slam champion and one of in-form WTA players during the past few months, is into the third round at 2017 Us Open Tennis Championships. It may not seem much for a world No. 1 contender, but getting past the round of 64 she practically surpassed a psychological barrier. Overal, she has reached three Grand Slam singles finals, but, up until now, the US Open was some sort of forbidden territory with Muguza being unable to survive beyond the second round session.
To have her in the third round without putting in that much effort is just another sign that 2017 is the season when she may become a true leader of the WTA professional tour.
Moreover, she keeps up alive the winning streak she started earlier this month at Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati.
Muguruza is yet to drop a set in New York
Entering the last Grand Slam of the season ranked third in the world and with a decent possibility to even clinch the summit by the end of these fortnight, Garbine Muguruza made no mistakes keeping her status above the floating line. She cruised past Varvara Lepchenko (64 WTA) in the opening round to book a spot in the second round where Ying-Ying Duan (92 WTA) emerged.
The Asian player had no chance confronting the third seed. The opening set was a bit blurry with Muguruza settling in. Winning the set by 6-4 gave her the right amount of confidence to raise his level.
Duan completely surrendered in the second act as Muguruza won it by 6-0.
The third round will feature an interesting matchup with Garbine Muguruza opposing to Magdalena Rybarikova (32 WTA). There is a reason why this matchup arrangement sounds familiar; Muguruza and Rybarikova had a high-profile clash earlier this summer in the semis at Wimbledon.
Now, the odds put them in the same box much earlier.
Muguruza bids for a second Grand Slam title in 2017
If she goes all the way, Muguruza will be the new ruler of the WTA circuit. And she has all the chances to do it as she has been the most consistent player throughout the summer. Once she made a perfect run winning in Cincinnati, it has become clear that the story of 2016 won't repeat itself.
There are no traces of a letdown or self-sufficient feeling after winning the second Major of her career.
She is entitled to hope for a deep run in New York given the current state of the draw. If she gets past Rybarikova, she will face the winner of Caroline Garcia vs. Petra Kvitova clash. The quarterfinals may bring Venus Williams at the other end. For the semis, it would be amazing to have a Muguruza vs. Sharapova encounter although there is a long journey up to that point. The final is just another wild guess now that the defending champion Angelique Kerber is out. Karolina Pliskova may be a player to put the money on, but it's a rather open field.
