She's the one to beat, Kerber says of Muguruza
Beaten Kerber hails Spaniard as the one to beat
Her answers were smooth and her tone soothing.
In another life, Garbine Muguruza would have made a perfect night-time radio deejay.
But, in this universe, the tennis starlet is on a meteoric rise, and on the cusp of making the semi-finals of the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global on her singles debut.
The 22-year-old Spaniard collected her second win in the White Group last night when she beat world No. 7 Angelique Kerber 6-4, 6-4 in 98 minutes.
It was Muguruza's fourth win against the German in five meetings this year, and puts her in pole position for a place in the last four, barring a freak set of results tomorrow, when she next plays in the singles competition.
Muguruza said: "Well, definitely I'm feeling very good. You never know how it's going to go here when you come for the first time. For sure, I'm very happy of how is it going.
"Hopefully, I can keep playing like this. It's great to be here playing in the singles and doubles.
"I've played all the year in singles and doubles, so it's great to have this pay-off being here."
The 1.82m-tall player is also still in the doubles competition with Carla Suarez Navarro, and will face Taiwanese pair Chan Hao-ching and Chan Yung-jan in the group stages today.
"For sure, it's a challenge to come here and play singles and doubles," cooed Muguruza.
"I know that, but I'm really motivated on both sides, so hopefully I can win as much as I can in both the singles and doubles.
"I know I will be more tired, for sure, but it's a risk I take."
Kerber said her victorious opponent is now a "dangerous player".
The 27-year-old said: "Right now, she has a lot of confidence from the last few weeks, which helps her in this important moment. I think that's why she is so dangerous right now."
Muguruza will end her singles group-stage campaign tomorrow against Petra Kvitova, who beat Lucie Safarova 7-5, 7-5 in the other White Group tie yesterday.
FIRST MEETING
Kvitova said: "Garbine and I practised together before the tournament started. I think she's going to play very aggressively, going for the shots and having good serves.
"It's going to be about the returns and serves. It's going to be a difficult match for sure. But we'll see, I've never played her before and I am looking forward."
And while Muguruza enjoys playing in both the singles and doubles, she said she will cut down on her competition load next year, after speaking to her doubles partner at the end of the season.
"With Carla, we've agreed before to play together for two years," she said. "I think it (playing doubles) was great for my improvement in the singles - I've learnt a lot in terms of volleys and going to the net.
"But I think next year's going to be different. We have to sit down and talk.
"For sure we are going to play in fewer tournaments because it's hard to play singles and doubles.
"This year was really hard for me."
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