WTA: Sam Sumyk goes back to basics with Garbine Muguruza

The year 2018 was disappointing for Garbine Muguruza. The Spanish coach, Sam Sumyk, has not been unaffected by this either.

Until a Thursday afternoon in June, the year 2018 for Garbine Muguruza actually went almost according to plan: good results, although no outstanding ones, had been achieved until then, but now everything was prepared for the entry into the finals of the French Open. Her opponent, Simona Halep, had won exactly one game in the last match, so not much could go wrong.

It went wrong after all, Halep showed her best match of the year, won her first Grand Slam tournament two days later against Sloane Stephens. Muguruza already has two of them in her pocket, but the current campaign doesn’t end satisfactorily. Only one tournament has the Spaniard won, in Monterrey in the final against Timea Babos.

Will Muguruza draw the consequences? Coach Sam Sumyk still seems to be firmly in the saddle. And is already planning for the coming season. “We will go back to the basics, look for answers and try to stay strong and united,” Sumyk told LesSportPlus last week.

At the WTA Premier Mandatory Tournament in Beijing, Muguruza won the first round against Ekaterina Makarova with aplomb, but now Aryna Sabalenka, the player who has caused a sensation in the past weeks, most recently with the tournament success in Wuhan, is threatening.

“We still have a month of competition ahead of us,” Sumyk continues. “And we want to quit well. We have to stay positive. But we say that so often, it’s almost lost its meaning.”

His protégé should like to get inspiration from other athletes. “You have to get an example from Tiger Woods or Novak Djokovic,” said the star coach. “Because the great champions always come back.”

Sumyk also notes that the number of coaches on the WTA Tour is decreasing – and many players are coached by friends or family. Sam Sumyk knows that his relationship with Muguruza won’t last forever.

“It’s always difficult to keep a coach-player relationship going, even when it’s going well. But only in difficult situations does it become clear whether a team is solid.”