Garbine Muguruza blames shock Australian Open exit on ‘stressful’ Covid outbreak

Garbine Muguruza has attributed her shock early exit from the Australian Open to a Covid-19 outbreak among her team.

Muguruza was outclassed by Alize Cornet, who eased to a 6-3, 6-3 win on Rod Laver.

The defeat sees the number three seed exit disappointingly early, especially with her looking to kick on at the Australian Open after winning the WTA Finals at the end of last season.

She, though, says there were mitigating circumstances.

“It’s been a pretty stressful start of the year also with my team,” Muguruza explained.

“They all got Covid before coming here. We were, like, for 15 days apart.

“It was hard for me for the preparation to come to the Aussie swing and play and perform well. That was tricky a little bit. Physically here I wasn’t also feeling my best.

“It’s a tricky part of the year also. The pre-season, the start of the season, you are doing the last touches. You kind of want to continue working. That threw me a little bit off,” she said.

“Although I had time here to prepare and everything, yeah, I think the combination of everything I think didn’t help me.”

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