Second-round cruise for Muguruza

Spain’s Garbine Muguruza has done her third seeding no harm on Day 2 of the Australian Open 2016 after she was on the court for all of 60 minutes during her first-round demolition of Anett Kontaveit at the Melbourne Park here on Tuesday. If she gets through that, a potential mouth-watering fourth-round match awaits against in-form two-time champion Victoria Azarenka, who swept past Danka Kovinic 6-1, 6-2. “Kirsten is a very hard opponent with a unique game, so I’m very happy to be in the third round”.

“I am very happy”.

“To win the Grand Slam here you are going to have to beat Serena (Williams). Always the first rounds are really tough but I’m really excited to be back here and into the second round”, she said.

But it was still not enough to prevent the Spaniard taking an ominous 3-0 lead, breaking again when the Estonian slammed a forehand into the net.

Muguruza came out firing on all cylinders and was one step ahead of Kontaveit throughout the first set as she broke the Estonian three times on route to clinching the set in just 23 minutes. After Muguruza held for 5-1, Flipkens did what she could by holding herself to force Muguruza to serve for the victory.

The feisty Kontaveit refused to give up and won three more games, but it was only delaying the inevitable with Muguruza serving out for the easy win and a second round clash with either Croat Mirjana Lucic-Baroni or Belgian Kirsten Flipkens.

“I played two previous tournaments (this year) and I didn’t have the results I wanted but I have a very strong belief”.

Muguruza, who split with long-time coach Alejo Mancisidor a year ago, is now working with Azarenka’s former mentor Sam Sumyk, who guided the Belarusian to the top of the women?s game and successive Australian Open titles in 2012 and 2013.

She also made the semi-finals of the season-ending WTA Championships in Singapore, where she acknowledged that other players of her generation had been touted as “the next big thing” only to have a poor follow-up season to a breakout year.

“I had a few problems in my foot but I think I am recovered now”, the 2015 Wimbledon finalist said after breaking her opponent four times and being completely untroubled on her own serve.