Garbine Muguruza – Press Conference
THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.
Q. Bad luck. Can you explain the problem and what happened?
GARBIÑE MUGURUZA: Yes. When I finished in Doha, that day that I — because of the rain, a lot of people played two matches, including me. The second one was very tough, and I remember that as soon as I went, after the match, to my room, I started to have a pain in my left Achilles.
The next morning was even more painful. I have been carried this since that day. And here, I have been training but on and off, honestly, because of the pain. Some days it was a little bit better, some days it was a little bit worse. It was just hard for me to serve, especially, and to just move side to side today on the court.
Q. So it’s Achilles, not ankle?
GARBIÑE MUGURUZA: No, it’s not ankle. It’s ridiculous. The doctor said maybe it’s just inflammation. Can’t see anything right now. I have to do some kind of MRI, sort of.
Personally, I don’t think it’s like something big, hopefully, but it’s very irritated and it’s really bothering me every time I have to run on the court.
Q. You have had like ankle injuries and issues before. Is this something you felt in the past, or is this like a new kind of pain?
GARBIÑE MUGURUZA: Honestly, it’s a new pain. Never felt pain in that part of the ankle. And it’s very painful to, every time you walk, to kind of have a pain there. It’s kind of new, honestly.
Q. How disappointed are you, especially that this is a tournament you have done well at in the past?
GARBIÑE MUGURUZA: Yeah, yeah, I’m disappointed, because at the end, in Doha, for some conditions, didn’t — I lost to Zhang there, and then I came here and had more days, but in fact I carried the problems from Doha.
So, yeah, I’m quite disappointed, because they are very important tournaments, Doha and Dubai together, especially here this year.
I mean, I don’t know. I feel kind of, like, I don’t know, didn’t play enough, you know. My next stop is Indian Wells, and I will try my best to be ready there, you know.
Q. What’s the plan now?
GARBIÑE MUGURUZA: I will probably go home, get ready, treat my Achilles, or I don’t know exactly what it is. Just to clean that zone. I don’t want to have any pain. I don’t want to go on the court with pain.
In Brisbane I had pain, Australia I had pain. So I’m tired of feeling that. I want to maybe prevent more than after, trying to recover.
Q. Remind us again where the pain was in Australia.
GARBIÑE MUGURUZA: In Australia it was, like, my adductor. I had pain in my adductor.
Yeah, certain details, one there, and — I mean, it’s normal to have pain when you’re a professional athlete, but not when you start the tournament, kind of. When you start and you feel like, man, I’m not 100%, you kind of feel a little bit down.
Q. Were you hurting during the offseason when you would do any…
GARBIÑE MUGURUZA: No. I actually did a good preseason, no pain.
So, yeah, everything started kind of when the competition came and here and there. They are like weird pains. Never had them before. That’s why I’m a little bit doubting.
Q. It’s often tough to make the call of maybe not playing a tournament at all or whether to play it when you’re in pain. Is that something you feel — do you regret any tournament you have played, or is that something you feel you need to work on better to listen to your body more?
GARBIÑE MUGURUZA: It’s very hard to say, because when you have pain — obviously I want to compete, so I’m going to go on the court trying to see if it goes better. I don’t know, sometimes when you are out there and you get excited, you kind of forget sometimes.
It’s very hard, because in the past I went to the court and I did the worse injury, and then I have to take two weeks to recover from that. I’d rather prevent that and maybe next week keep playing.
It’s very hard. It’s just your feelings, maybe. Sometimes you’re like, No, I know this time that if I go on the court I’m going to regret. Or, You know what? I’m going to go because I think it’s — you have to feel that.
Q. You said you have to expect to see injuries as an athlete, but just a few weeks into the season, before the tournament started, there were nine players that pulled out with an injury. You have been unable to complete your first match. That’s ten injuries out of one draw. Is there something wrong with players overtraining or not training properly? What do you think the answer is?
GARBIÑE MUGURUZA: I think everybody has their own world in the team, but at least my pains are kind of — well, I think the first two were because I had played a lot of matches and strong matches and I practiced, and it was just carrying it.
But this one is kind of weird, so I don’t know what to tell you, honestly. I think everybody is training so hard, and I don’t know if it’s normal or not. I think in my case I’m still, like, What’s happening here, you know?
Q. You went 4-0 down and broke back and quit.
GARBIÑE MUGURUZA: But when I won that game, I’m like, Yeah, it doesn’t matter, because I don’t see myself now 100% to play a match, so even though if I’m 4-1, it’s not that I’m, Oh, maybe I can win, you know.
I’d rather be healthy and go out there and play my best tennis than trying to have a big pain and try to get worse just to maybe have a chance, you know, in these situations. I’m, like, I don’t want to force to get worse.
