“I've come this far,” says Garbiñe Muguruza this Saturday, who at 30 years old and after having discovered life beyond tennis, is hanging up his racket. She does it her way, when and how she wants. With an impressive career behind her. She has a Roland Garros (2016), a Wimbledon (2017) and a Masters Cup (2021) in her showcases, in addition to having touched the sky of the circuit with the number one that she reached at her professional peak. He is already, despite his youth, one of the great symbols of Spanish tennis, an orphan of heroines since Arantxa and Conchita stepped aside. But there she arrived, a unique, temperamental and special player, with a thunderous game and her characteristic comings and goings. She brought down the Williams, and she never wanted to accept the path that dogma imposed on her: genius is moments, unique memories, and her nature guided her along that path, contrary to popular opinion. She never wanted to be one more, but simply was herself. She finishes the trip, intense as it could be. Short? No way. At 3 years old she was already holding a racket.
“I feel like the time has come. These months of break have been key. When I returned home, I welcomed the break with open arms and felt better with each passing day. He didn't miss the discipline and difficulty of the day-to-day life of tennis; The tournaments went by and I realized that things had changed. We take everything to the maximum, and that's why now I enjoy that not everything is like that, extreme. I want to look at the next chapter, and not the tennis one, which is already in the past. If you had told me I was going to get that much, I would have signed it. "It's incredible," she explains this Saturday in April at the Palacio de Cibeles in Madrid, within the framework of the opening of the Laureus Awards and after a thoughtful decision that was made after a year away from her sport on her own initiative. Then he needed to stop, catch his breath and think, and thanks to the new daily life he realized that there is a beyond the track, of winning, of the adrenaline and also of the enslaving routines and mental erosion of the elite.
“What I am most proud of is that I achieved it, that I resisted; resisting those moments of difficulty, all those bad moments, and also the good ones, because they can also leave you a little confused,” she continues. “We all dream of winning Grand Slams, reaching the top, being
a teacher
… So I feel like I have achieved many dreams. I don't really understand when history is made, but I have made my history, which has been fantastic. It was my own decision, I needed it. It has been a response to what I needed, to what I felt. It has been easy, because I have been taking it little by little,” continues the former athlete, who in the short term has multiple plans in mind. Among them, “getting married, starting a family and even having a dog,” she continues.
Asked what moment in her career she chooses, she does not hesitate: “The Wimbledon final is unique. The history of tennis was formed there, so there is nothing beyond that. "It's the most you can get." Having achieved her milestone, today she continues watching tennis, but with a nuance: “I have not returned to a court.” Contrary to the current trend, while all tennis players try to stretch her career to the maximum, she once again stands out. Garbiñe has been Muguruza from the first to the last day.