Muguruza hopes to power forward with ‘Conchita mind’

GarbineMuguruza has not had the best of starts to her season. The reigningWimbledon champion and former World No 1 has struggled with form andlost in the second round of the Australian Open to Hsieh Su-wei. A leginjury has also not made it easier for the 24-year-old Spaniard to moveon the court.But Muguruza has a reason to cheer now after shereunited with her compatriot Conchita Martinez, the 1994 Wimbledonchampion. Martinez was in Muguruza’s box throughout her triumph at AllEngland Club last year and is guiding her fellow Spaniard for the nextfour hard-court tournaments, beginning from the Qatar Total Open, whichbegan yesterday.Ahead of her second round match against Ying-YingDuan of China in Doha today, Muguruza, currently ranked fourth, sharedher excitement of having Martinez join her team and her goals for theseason.Excerpts:Since the Australian Open loss in the second round, how long were the racquets in the bag or were you back training soon?Well,I had time to rest and to prepare after the Australian Open. I wentback to Switzerland, and I actually went pretty fast to the court. I didplay a lot of tennis, actually. I wanted to forget a little bit how thestart of the season went, and I felt nice to just spend hours on thecourt.You were dealing with a bunch of little niggles in January. So physically how are you feeling?I’mfeeling better. Right now I’m happy that all these training days havegone well and I feel better. So hopefully nothing happens until I haveto compete.What made you to join hands with Conchita Martinez again?It’sa little bit of a new experience for me. Conchita and I, we’ve knowneach other since I was little and she’s always been a bit in the shadow,you know, helping me here and there. And of course, everybody saw meand her in Wimbledon and we had the best success possible.I getalong well with her. And I thought it might be a good idea to have herin the next couple of tournaments till Miami. And just have this newexperience. I was looking for this experience. Sam Sumyk will continuebeing my main coach but I think it’s going to be interesting.I thinkConchita is a very calm person. And she has a lot of experience. Thisis not easy to find and it isn’t easy also to be in this difficultcompetitive environment and to get along with somebody very good. I feelI have an amazing team and I think I have one of the best coaches inthe tour, which is Sam. And now (I have) also some experience that isgoing to help me, ‘the Conchita mind’. So yeah, I think it’s good.Do you talk about what it was like back in the day when Martinez was playing?Yeah.It is different era she played in, but at the end, you know, she’s alsobeen a tennis player. And those things are there. The mental part ofthe game and just the travelling or just a woman who has been tennisplayer. Sometimes it’s difficult to handle. So it’s just good to haveher.