MELBOURNE (Reuters) – Third seed Garbine Muguruza struggled to close out the contest but reached the second round of the Australian Open with a 6-3 6-4 victory over feisty young Frenchwoman Clara Burel on Rod Laver Arena on Tuesday.
Burel showed plenty of fight and managed to break Muguruza in the opening set but her own serve was brittle and 12 double faults dug a hole she was always going to struggle to get out of.
The experienced Spaniard, a losing finalist at Melbourne Park two years ago, came into the net to great effect to go a set and a break up but was broken again when serving for the match.
The former Wimbledon and French Open champion broke Burel for a fifth time in the next game to get the job done and move onto to a contest with another Frenchwoman, Alize Cornet.
(Reporting by Nick Mulvenney in Sydney; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
