Garbiñe Muguruza Blanco (; born 8 October 1993) is a Spanish-Venezuelan inactive professional tennis player. She has represented Spain in two Olympic Games, Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 as well as Fed cup from 2015. She has a career-high singles ranking of world No. 1 in the world by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA), and a career-high doubles ranking of world No. 10. She has won two Grand Slam singles titles, at the 2016 French Open and the 2017 Wimbledon Championships, and the 2021 WTA Finals. She won ten WTA Tour titles and finished runner-up at the 2015 Wimbledon Championships and the 2020 Australian Open.
With powerful groundstrokes and an aggressive style of play, Muguruza came to prominence at the Miami Open in 2012 by reaching the fourth round defeating two Top Ten players and making her breakthrough on the WTA tour. In 2015, Muguruza reached her first major final at the Wimbledon Championships, where she lost to Serena Williams. She then won her maiden Premier-level crown by winning the 2015 China Open, and qualified for her first WTA Finals in singles, losing to Agnieszka Radwańska in the semifinals.
Muguruza has also been successful in doubles, winning five titles, finishing runner-up at the 2015 WTA Finals and reaching the 2014 French Open semifinals, always partnering with Carla Suárez Navarro.
Early life
Garbiñe Muguruza was born in Caracas, Venezuela, on 8 October 1993 to her Venezuelan mother, Scarlet Blanco, and her Basque father José Antonio Muguruza, who hails from Azkoitia in Gipuzkoa, Basque Country. She has two elder brothers named Asier and Igor, also ex-professional tennis players, and has dual Spanish-Venezuelan citizenship. Muguruza began playing tennis at the age of three at the tennis courts of Mampote, in Guarenas outside Caracas, and already showed great talent and skill.
After moving to Spain with her family when she was six years old, looking for better hopes in her tennis career, Muguruza began training at the Bruguera Tennis Academy in Barcelona with her brothers, all dreaming of becoming professional tennis players.
Tennis career
2012
After turning professional on 2 March 2012, Muguruza was given a wild card for her first WTA Tour main-draw appearance at the Miami Open. There, she upset former world No. 2, Vera Zvonareva, and former world No. 10, Flavia Pennetta, before falling in the round of 16 to the eventual champion, Agnieszka Radwańska, in straight sets.
At the US Open, she qualified into the main draw of a Grand Slam tournament for the first time after a number of players withdrew; she lost in three sets to tenth seed Sara Errani in the first round.
2013
At the Australian Open, Muguruza made it into the main draw, after several players withdrew that did not pass into the qualifying match, she lost to Serena Williams in straight sets in the second round.
At Indian Wells, she qualified for the main draw and then made her way to the last 16, where she fell to eventual semifinalist Angelique Kerber. She was then awarded a main-draw wild card into the Miami Open once more where she matched last year's result, recording wins over Kateřina Siniaková, 23rd seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and ninth seed Caroline Wozniacki en route to the round of 16 where she lost to fifth seed Li Na.
After Wimbledon, Muguruza underwent a right ankle surgery and missed the rest of the season. She continued to train by hitting groundstrokes sitting down. She ended that year as the world No. 63 in singles and No. 153 in doubles.
2014: First WTA title, steady results & rise in doubles
Muguruza began the 2014 season with a quarterfinal appearance at the Auckland Open, where she lost to former world No. 1 and eventual runner-up, Venus Williams. The following week, Muguruza qualified and eventually won her first WTA singles title at the Hobart International by defeating Klára Zakopalová in the final in straight sets.
At the Australian Open, Muguruza recovered from a set down to defeat tenth seed Caroline Wozniacki in three sets to reach the fourth round for the first time where she lost in straight sets to the fifth seed, Agnieszka Radwańska. She and Arantxa Parra Santonja also reached the second round of the doubles event; they lost in straight sets to the eighth seeds, Raquel Kops-Jones and Abigail Spears.