Garbine Muguruza and her journey to the top: The bigger the tournament, the better I play

Exclusive interview: The 2017 Wimbledon champion talks to The Independent about thriving in high-pressure matches and building upon her summer of success

This summer Muguruza appears finally to have learned how to cope with success at Grand Slam level (Getty)

Being the popular choice to win next week’s season-ending WTA Finals in Singapore is unlikely to trouble Garbine Muguruza. The Wimbledon champion, who was named on Friday as the Women's Tennis Association's player of the the year, is a firm believer in Billie Jean King’s maxim that “pressure is a privilege”.

Ask Muguruza if she likes going into tournaments as the favourite and the 24-year-old Spaniard is adamant. “It’s a great thing to have,” she said. “That pressure everywhere you go, that responsibility, I think it’s good to have it. It’s worse if you are there and nobody expects you to win.”

Nevertheless, those are not the sort of sentiments you would have expected to hear from Muguruza before this summer. Until her Wimbledon triumph in July the current world No 2 had a reputation as a player who could occasionally rise to the big occasion but struggled to live up to her billing thereafter.

The tennis world at large had been aware of Muguruza’s exceptional talent ever since she beat four higher-ranked players to reach the 2015 Wimbledon final, when she was the world No 20. However, even as she followed that up by winning her first Grand Slam title at last year’s French Open, the doubts about her ability to sustain such excellence only grew.

Between Wimbledon 2015 and Roland Garros 2016 Muguruza won only one title. Between last year’s French Open and this year’s Wimbledon she did not win any at all. Even at the intervening Grand Slam events she was struggling, with just one quarter-final appearance to show from the five tournaments she played between her appearances in finals.

This summer, however, Muguruza appears finally to have learned how to cope with success at Grand Slam level. Since Wimbledon she has won one of the year’s most important titles in Cincinnati, reached two semi-finals and two quarter-finals and made the last 16 of the US Open before losing to Petra Kvitova in one of the matches of the tournament.

Muguruza has enjoyed one of best seasons to date (Getty)

With her new-found consistency Muguruza became world No 1 for the first time last month. Simona Halep dislodged her from top spot last week, but has only a marginal lead. Indeed, the positions at the top of the list are so to tight that Caroline Garcia is the only player with no chance of finishing No 1 come the end of next week’s tournament, which brings together the eight players who have earned the most ranking points this year.

“I used to either lose in my first or second match or I would go very far in the tournament,” Muguruza told The Independent. “So I’ve been saying to myself: ‘Come on, you’ve got to get through these first two matches. They’re very tough. Because afterwards you [will] feel different.’ So I’m really putting my energy into getting through to those later rounds.

“I think it’s working, especially in the Grand Slams. For us the Grand Slams are very important. When the Grand Slams come, you’re thinking: ‘OK, this is the tournament.’ To lose there is disappointing.”

The Spaniard said she has the tendency to reach her peak in the sport's biggest tournaments (Getty)

While her record is improving, there is plenty of scope for more progress. Consider this comparison between Muguruza and one of her Singapore rivals next week. Caroline Wozniacki, aged 27, has won 26 titles in her career and played in 49 finals. Muguruza, who is three years younger, has won just five titles and played in only eight finals. Crucially, however, the Spaniard’s eight appearances in finals include three in Grand Slam tournaments.

“I just think I play better in the greater scenarios,” Muguruza said. “I just get motivated. I like the big crowds on the centre courts. At one stage I had won only two WTA titles at the same time as I had two Grand Slam titles. People would ask me why I hadn’t won more WTA titles and I was like: ‘I don’t know.’ I think it’s just that I get more motivated for the big ones.”

Halep’s rise to No 1 reignited the debate as to whether a player can be regarded as the best in the world when they have not won a Grand Slam title. In the last nine years Jelena Jankovic, Dinara Safina, Wozniacki, Karolina Pliskova and Halep have all reached the top without claiming one of the sport’s four biggest prizes.

Simona Halep dethroned Muguruza as the world No 1 (Getty Images)

Muguruza is happy to have achieved both goals. “For sure it’s a great accomplishment, to be able to say I’ve already won two Grand Slam titles and become No 1,” she said. “When I won Wimbledon, I was thinking: ‘The next good thing obviously is to keep winning Grand Slams.’ But my dream was always also to become No 1. So to have both things, it’s good.”

Unlike Pliskova and Angelique Kerber, two of her recent predecessors as world No 1, Muguruza appears to thrive on being at the top. “I didn’t feel that different,” she said. “Of course I felt like I was the favourite. I think I’m kind of the favourite everywhere I go now, but I felt like I’m playing all these players every day.”

She added: “I've been learning with time that every tournament is very important. When you're younger, you always kind of dream about the biggest trophies. That’s what you hear. That’s what the coaches tell you. But I have learned there are no little tournaments, no little matches. Every tournament I go to, I expect myself to be prepared, to get to the final rounds, to be confident.”

Competition in Singapore, where $7m (about £5.3m) in prize money is on offer, begins on Sunday. The players are divided into two round-robin groups of four, with the top two in each progressing to the semi-finals. Muguruza is in a group with Pliskova, Venus Williams and Jelena Ostapenko, while Halep, Wozniacki, Garcia and Elina Svitolina will contest the other section.