World No. 6 Muguruza showed no mercy to her opponent in the second round to start her Western & Southern Open, pounding Beatriz Haddad Maia in a 6-2,6-0 victory. It was a nice confidence-booster for Muguruza heading into her matchup against Keys, whom she has yet to beat in her career.
Against Maia, Muguruza rode her strong serves, as she won an identical 67 percent on both her first and second serves. In addition, she was able to convert six of nine break point chances.
Keys isn’t the patsy that Maia was, but it doesn’t hurt Muguruza to pump in some needed momentum into her system, enough for her to get over her psychological hump against Keys.
Muguruza has one title so far this season, which was a Grand Slam win in Wimbledon last month.
Muguruza doesn’t seem to have the key to beating Keys. At least that’s what Key’s 3-0 career record against the Venezuelan would tell you. Keys is eager to keep his slate clean in this matchup when she takes Muguruza one more time today.
Keys is breezing through the competition in the tournament so far, having defeated CoCo Vandeweghe in the first round and Darya Kasatkina in the second round. She’s dropped just one set in those matches combined.
It wasn’t long ago when Keys last taught Muguruza a lesson on the court. That’s when she beat the Venezuelan 6-3, 6-2 in the semifinals of the Stanford Classic earlier this month. Keys has defeated Muguruza here in Cincinnati before, cooling down Muguruza in the semifinals of the 2012 Cincinnati Masters, 7-6(5) 3-6 6-1.
