Garbine Muguruza Rallies Past Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova to Reach her First Semifinals at Australian Open 2020

Former World No.1 Garbine Muguruza continued her resurgent run at the Australian Open 2020 as she defeated Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 7-5, 6-3 in the quarterfinals. With this victory, Muguruza also reaches her maiden semifinals at the Melbourne Park.

The Spaniard won 75% of points behind her first serve and broke Pavlyuchenkova five times en route to a tidy 1 hour and 32 minutes victory. Muguruza recorded 21 winners including six aces and 21 unforced errors. On the other hand, the Russian blasted 18 winners, which were offset by 26 unforced errors.

Garbine Muguruza broke thrice to win the first set

After holding their opening service games respectively, the two players traded early breaks at 2-2. Garbine Muguruza fended off 2 breakpoints in next game to hold a crucial service game.

The Spaniard did well to fight another breakpoint in her next service game. However, Pavlyuchenkova eventually did earn the break to get a 4-3 lead on serve.

Muguruza once again earned a break back in the next game to level back the set at 4-4. While serving to stay in the set at 5-6, Pavlyuchenkova was broken for the third time as Muguruza closed the set 7-5 after 57 minutes.

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Muguruza wraps the match with the second set victory

In a replication of the first set, the two players exchanged early breaks in their opening serves respectively. The next three games went with the serve.

Garbine Muguruza then changed gears to break her opponent and get a 4-2 lead in the second set. The 26-year-old served out the match after 1 hour and 32 minutes, winning the second set 6-3.

She will next face the No.4 seed Simona Halep in her maiden Australian Open semifinals. Earlier, Halep defeated Anett Kontaveit in straight sets 6-1, 6-1 in the one-sided quarterfinals on Wednesday.