The round robin competition affords second chances to those who lose their opening encounter. Both Garbine and Barbora lost to Pliskova and Kontaveit respectively and were looking for redemption here. Being a night match can be a good or bad thing for a player. It is good in terms of the temperatures being cooler at night and bad in terms of the body may not be used to playing at an odd hour. So players can tire a lot quicker than normal. Garbine is a notoriously slow starter and it showed again in this one.

The game plan going into this one for Muguruza should certainly be to watch out for the backhand cross court ground stroke. Watch 1-1(40-30) on her racquet. Looks like she didn't follow the memo in that point. Despite struggling in that game she held on for 2-1 and going on to lose the next 5 games to hand the set to Barbora. A very error strewn opening set from the Spaniard. She couldn't match Barbora's first serve in that set but she would go on to rectify this in the next. But first watch 5-2(40-15) set point for the Czech. The serve to Garbine on the deuce court going straight to her forehand , could only get to Barbora's backhand side and we know what comes after that. How could she have countered? By going cross court. With that kind of serve easier said than done.

Garbine broke the Barbora serve at the best time. Right when it was on song, serving at over 65% to get the momentum on her side. She also started to find the corners with her stronger forehand on her serve too. Check out second set 3-1(40-15). As I have said in earlier blogs , the longer the rally in which she is on the defensive the better if you are playing Krejcikova. Her positioning in this one away from the baseline did her in. Barbora will look back at the eighth game of the set at 4-3 for a missed chance to break after playing some great groundstrokes to force deuce in the previous game to break. We were headed to a decider.

There was so much riding on this match and it showed in the third set. Both players unflinching on their serve especially the second serve for Barbora. How about that serve down the line for Garbine at 1-0 first point. If you have to serve to the Barbora backhand it damn well has to be that good right on the T to give her no chance at a strong return. Barbora looked to have dodged a bullet at 1-1(40-30) break point. Well in control of the point her overhead smash seemed to have missed the baseline but landed just in. But it was a temporary reprieve as Garbine broke to take a 2-1 lead , a lead she would never relinquish with her serve as accurate as ever. She keeps her hopes alive for reaching the semis but needs a win over Kontaveit in her next match to make it. Kontaveit already a semi finalist in Guadalajara. Krecjikova still has an outside chance to make it