Garbine Muguruza eyes another boost to season at Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships

A little less than a year ago, Garbine Muguruza arrived late to Dubai and was coming off of a disappointing defeat to Petra Kvitova in the Qatar Open final.

The Spanish two-time major champion was ranked 16 in the world at the time and hadn’t won a title in nearly two years. A week later, Muguruza was hoisting Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships' shiny ‘coffee pot’ trophy, celebrating an impressive victory over Barbora Krejcikova in the final, and scooping her biggest title since 2017.

That run at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis stadium proved to be an important turning point for Muguruza, who went on to win two more titles in 2021, including the prestigious season-ending WTA Finals in Guadalajara. The ex-world No 1 finished the year ranked three in the world, and re-established herself as a force on the women’s tour.

“It meant a lot,” Muguruza told reporters in Dubai on Sunday, reflecting her triumph in the emirates last year.

“It was such a weird tournament; coming last minute from Doha, without a team – well, without part of my team, playing so many matches in a row. I think it was a hell of an experience. But it was good, gave me a lot of confidence in myself.”

At 28 years of age, Muguruza is no rookie on tour. She has experienced incredible highs and challenging lows and continues to develop different ways to handle the roller coaster nature of the professional tennis circuit.

She arrives to Dubai this year on the back of an unexpected early exit at the Australian Open, where she fell to Alize Cornet in the second round.

“I was disappointed. It took a couple of days back home [to get over it],” Muguruza admitted.

“I'm like, ‘Okay, how I'm going to shake things up? How I'm going to come back stronger?’ We started