US OPEN

August 30, 2022

Garbine Muguruza

Press Conference

G. MUGURUZA/C. Tauson

6-3, 7-6

THE MODERATOR: If you could just take us through the match from your perspective, your thoughts on the win.

GARBINE MUGURUZA: I'm pleased with this match. Obviously I'm not taking any win for granted, especially this year. It's been, you know, a year where I haven't had many wins. So very happy to get this first round here in US Open. I've had some early exits here, so it was very important for me to kind of go through this first challenge, and I was playing an opponent that I have never played before, so I didn't really know what to expect.

But what I was sure is that I have been training very hard. Since I'm not playing many matches I have been training a lot. So I was prepared to go with what I had and fight and try to be inside of the tournament.

THE MODERATOR: Questions in English.

Q. You have been beating yourself up all year. You even went on special media to apologize to your fans. So how hard has this experience been since you won the WTA Final?

GARBINE MUGURUZA: I mean, it's been hard. Including me and everybody, you know, thinks that because you finished the year very well that, you know, everything is going to be the same next year. I really felt like a little bit of a drop this year in terms of sometimes it was tennistically, sometimes it was mentally, sometimes it was just energy.

And so, yeah, I mean, I think, this is a year where I'm feeling the toll of many years on tour, but I'm going through it, you know, trying to have a smile and knowing that I have had great years. This might not be the best year of my career, but still here and still competing.