Former world No. 1 Garbine Muguruza made a winning return as on Friday she defeated Ajla Tomljanovic 7-5 6-2 in the Madrid first round.
After suffering a shock defeat in the Indian Wells second round, Muguruza took a break.
On Friday, Tomljanovic played her first match in a month and a half.
Muguruza wasn’t putting too much pressure before the match and it worked out well for her.
“I went out without a lot of expectation, not knowing with lack of matches how it was gonna feel out there, but that’s it,” Muguruza said after the win, per the WTA Tour website. “I took the energy from the crowd more this time than other years. In other years I can’t get over sometimes the nerves.
“But this year I was, like, ‘You know what? I’m gonna use the crowd.’ If they cheer up for me, if I put the ball in the locker room, then who cares, right? So yeah, happy with that.”
Muguruza on how break helped her
Muguruza didn’t make a good start to the season as she was inconsistent and losing early.
After an early exit in Indian Wells, Muguruza realized that continuing to play through pain wouldn’t get her far.
Shortly after taking a break, Muguruza started feeling that her body was recovering.
“I felt like I needed it because I was training a lot, and my body was not really taking on the training,” Muguruza said. “It was one pain here, one pain there. It was an accumulation of pain. I told my team, I think we should take 10 days at least off so I get to recover naturally my body.
“As soon as I stopped playing, my shoulder started healing, my leg, my back, everything started to be where it should. I said, ‘I think we should focus more this year on clay court.’ It was a natural feeling. The schedule, it’s pretty intense. So I felt nothing’s going to happen if I skip one or two tournaments if after I’m gonna come back and feel better.”
Muguruza plays Anhelina Kalinina in the Madrid second round.