Garbine Muguruza makes Spanish history with WTA Finals triumph

By Ben Knapton, Senior Reporter | 1y

Garbine Muguruza becomes the first Spaniard to win the WTA Finals after beating Estonia's Anett Kontaveit 6-3 7-5 in the final in Guadalajara.

Spain's Garbine Muguruza marched to her first WTA Finals triumph with a straight sets victory over Estonia's Anett Kontaveit in Guadalajara.

The 28-year-old had already downed her counterpart in the Group Teotihuacan to end her 12-game winning streak before advancing to the final after sending fellow Spaniard Paula Badosa packing.

After becoming the first Spaniard to reach the final since 1993, Mugurza prevailed 6-3 7-5 in Wednesday night's showpiece event to clinch the title, which saw her dethrone Ashleigh Barty as defending champion.

Muguruza - who is the first from her country to win the tournament - spoke of her 'relief' on her on-court interview, saying: "Right now, I feel extremely happy and relieved.

"It's a tournament that I've struggled at the beginning, then I managed to play well. I think I'm staying composed a little bit now because it means really a lot to me to win such a big, big, big tournament in Latin America, here in Mexico. I think it's just perfect.

"I'm just very happy I proved to myself once again I can be the best, I can be the maestra, as we say in Spanish. That puts me in a very good position for next year, a good ranking... It's just the pay-off for such a long year. My team and I worked hard. It pays off. It just shows us that we're doing [things] the right way.

"This trophy, like right now here, these are the best feelings. Not even the ranking. Just to actually touch this and I take it home, it's in the story, it's in my curriculum. It's the way of, like, 'I did it.'"

Muguruza is set to rise to third in the WTA Rankings following her triumph in Mexico.