"I shed a few tears" - Muguruza on the retirement of Serena Williams

Garbine Muguruza admired Serena Williams and she praised her once more in a recent interview with Spanish El Pais.

Muguruza and Williams battled only six times on the court which is not much but they played some highly memorable ones. In 2015 Williams bested Muguruza in the Wimbledon final to lift another grand slam trophy but Muguruza repaid the favour one year later in the Roland Garros final.

In a recent interview with El Pais Muguruza spoke about Williams saying:

She is a controversial woman who, when she does something, she does it full throttle. She grows in the face of adversity: the more she has been criticized, the more she has reaffirmed herself. She’s become stronger, more groundbreaking and more rebellious. She is an iconoclast who has broken all the molds."

She explanded further by explaining that the news of her retirement made her really sad:

"I must confess that recently, after reading the news of her retirement, I shed a few tears. I cried when she told us she was retiring, which is very rare for me. Somehow, her goodbye has shut down something inside me; something was extinguished. When she announced that it was time to evolve and take the next step, which is only logical and perfectly fine, I thought: No, Serena’s leaving! Now what? Now who’s going to be the one to really lead tennis, to be an unmatched role model that we can look up to? Who will take on the legend’s mantle? That’s how much she means to me".