Conchita Martinez out of Team Garbiñe

MIAMI, Fla. – As announced on her Twitter feed Wednesday, Conchita Martinez’s collaboration with world No. 3 Garbiñe Muguruza is over.

Muguruza was ousted by No. 13 seed Sloane Stephens Monday in Miami, in the fourth round.

In retrospect, after Stephens gave up even fewer games (three) in the next round to Angelique Kerber, it certainly doesn’t seem like a bad loss, to the reigning US Open champion.

Muguruza lost her opening match at Indian Wells, in a shocker to qualifier Sachia Vickery.

“She has decided to go back working full-time (alone) with her coach. Like always it was great to work these past tournaments with her. I wish her and the rest of the team the best for the rest of year,” Martinez wrote.

Good Middle-East swing

Martinez was with Muguruza in Doha and Dubai last month. Muguruza reached the final in Doha and the semifinals in Dubai, narrowly losing (she was up a set, and lost a second-set tiebreak 13-11) to Daria Kasatkina.

“I think she’s a very calm person. And she has a lot of experience. This is not easy to find and it isn’t easy also to be in this difficult competitive environment and to get along with somebody very good,” Muguruza told the media in Doha before the Middle East swing.

“I feel I have an amazing team and I think I have one of the best coaches in the tour, which is Sam (Sumyk). And now [I have] also some experience that is going to help me, ‘the Conchita mind’. So yeah, I think it’s good.”

The two first worked together last summer at Wimbledon, in the absence of full-time coach Sam Sumyk, who was at home awaiting the birth of his first child with wife Meilen Tu, a former player turned agent.

Muguruza won it, her second Grand Slam title.

Martinez acted as an additional mind, a complement to Sumyk – except when Muguruza’s regular coach wasn’t on site, when she would assume the reins.

It’s not unusual for players these days to have that tag-team approach, although it’s far less common on the women’s side because the WTA players, in general, don’t want to invest the money in additional coaching.

Muguruza’s next tournament is a small event in Monterrey, Mexico next week. She and Magdalena Rybarikova (No. 19) are the only two players ranked in the top 35 on the entry list.

It’s pretty clear there’s a whole lot going on behind the scenes.

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Stephanie Myles

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