Muguruza wins French Open, denying Williams 22nd major title

Garbine Muguruza won her first Grand Slam title by beating defending champion Serena Williams 7-5, 6-4 at the French Open today, denying the American her record-equaling 22nd major trophy.
The fourth-seeded Muguruza, a 22-year-old from Spain, used her big groundstrokes to keep No. 1 Williams off-balance and overcame signs of nerves in the form of nine double-faults to pull off the surprise.
Muguruza also managed to deal with Williams' dangerous serve, breaking three consecutive times from late in the first set to early in the second.
This was Muguruza's second major final; she lost to Williams at Wimbledon last year. But Muguruza has won her past two matches against Williams on the clay of Roland Garros, including in the second round in 2014.

For Williams, whose timing was not exactly right much of the afternoon, Saturday's loss delayed yet again her pursuit of matching Steffi Graf with 22 Grand Slam singles championships, the most in the Open era, which began in 1968. Margaret Court holds the all-time record of 24.
Williams got No. 21 at Wimbledon in 2015, her fourth major title in a row. But since then, she has been beaten in the semifinals at the U.S. Open by Roberta Vinci last September, in the final at the Australian Open by Angelique Kerber in January, and now by Muguruza. This is the first time in Williams' career she has lost back-to-back Grand Slam finals.

This year's visit to Paris hardly could have started off more inauspiciously for Muguruza: She lost the very first set she played in the tournament, against 38th-ranked Anna Karolina Schmiedlova.

But, oh, how Muguruza turned things around from there. She won the next 14 sets she played, displaying the deep groundstrokes and take-the-ball-early aggressiveness that flustered Williams.
The final began under a slate ceiling of clouds, but at least there was none of the heavy rain that led to flooding in Paris and a temporary shutdown of the Louvre museum. All those showers jumbled the tournament schedule, forcing Williams to be in action for a fourth straight day in the final.

Nishikori in four
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Sixth-seeded Kei Nishikori of Japan, two years removed from his run to the final, rallied for a 4-6, 6-1, 6-2, 6-2 win over France's Nicolas Mahut.
Nishikori, who has dropped a set in each of his matches so far, will take on Ivo Karlovic for a quarter-final berth after the towering Croatian defeated 19-year-old American Jared Donaldson 6-4, 7-6 (7/3), 6-3.
Juan Martin del Potro, whose career was nearly derailed by injuries after his 2009 US Open triumph, fired 37 winners in a 7-6 (7/3), 6-2, 6-3 victory over Spanish 11th seed David Ferrer.
He next faces eighth-seeded Austrian Dominic Thiem, who celebrated his 23rd birthday with a 1-6, 6-4, 6-4, 7-5 victory over Pablo Carreno Busta of Spain.

Women's fourth seed Agnieszka Radwanska advanced with ease, dispatching France's Caroline Garcia 6-2, 6-3 to set up a meeting with Croatian Ana Konjuh, a 6-3, 3-6, 6-2 winner over American Varvara Lepchenko.
Hungarian Timea Babos put a scare into Romanian fifth seed Simona Halep, surging back in the second set and taking a 3-1 lead in the third before falling 6-1, 2-6, 6-4.
Halep, who fell in the semi-finals to eventual champion Flavia Pennetta last year, will play Spain's Carla Suarez Navarro for place in the quarter-finals.
Suarez, also celebrating a birthday Saturday as she turned 28, defeated Russian Elena Vesnina 6-4, 6-3.

Sixth seed Venus Williams, whose seven Grand Slam titles include US Open crowns in 2000 and 2001, coasted into the round of 16 with a straightforward 6-1, 6-2 win over German Laura Siegemund, setting up a tough meeting with 10th-seeded Karolina Pliskova.
The hard-hitting Czech, who shocked Angelique Kerber in the final of the US Open tuenup in Cincinnati, defeated Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-2, 6-4.