Garbine Muguruza of Spain poses with the champion trophy during the awarding ceremony for the women's singles final at the 2016 French Open tennis tournament in Paris, France, June 4, 2016. (Xinhua/Han Yan)
Spaniard Garbine Muguruza stunned 21-time Grand Slam champion Serena Williams 7-5, 6-4 at Roland Garros to claim her first major title on Saturday while the 34-year-old defending champion is still one short of matching Steffi Graf's 22-major title record.
The 22-year-old Spanish demonstrated how much she had grown in the past year as she needed one hour and 43 minutes to dethrone defending champion Williams.
Less than a year ago, Muguruza lost to Williams in the Wimbledon final, the only other major final of the Venezuela-born player.
The Spaniard, reckoned "Dark Horse" in the 2014 French Open where Muguruza ousted Williams in the second round, got off to a flying start, breaking the American first and saved two break points to lead 4-2.
Williams broke back, but her opponent broke again in her final service game to take the first set 7-5.
The second set went in favor of Muguruza who stormed to a 3-0 lead, untill a late fight back from Williams, who saved four match points in her own serve game when trailing 5-3, made the Spaniard work for victory.
Though having admitted a muscle injury after Friday's semifinal against another 22-year-old Kike Bertens, Williams declined to make excuses over physical conditions, nor over a compressed schedule due to rain delays.
"I'm not one to ever make excuses and say, like, Oh, my adductor was hurting or whatever," she said. "I think at the end of the day I didn't play the game I needed to play to win and she did."
"I have played a lot of times four or five matches in a row. I don't think it's like something that I would say, Oh, that was the reason," added the 34-year-old.
With the victory, Muguruza came out the first Spaniard winning at Roland Garros after Rafael Nadal in 2014, and the first Spanish woman to become a champion here since Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, in 1998.
The talent, who's as powerful as Williams, had only her previous best results at Roland Garros of making the quarterfinals in 2014 and 2015.
"I can't explain with words what his day means to me. You work all your life to get here," Muguruza told the crowd after the match.
"I want to really congratulate Serena because she's one of the best players. I've grown up playing on clay, so for Spain and for me this is just amazing," added the Spaniard.
Williams said Muguruza would do well in the future.
"She's definitely hitting hard. She just goes for broke on every shot and it works for her," said Williams. "I think she has a bright future, obviously."
Williams, however, has to lay back again with just one match from Steffi Graf's 22-major title record in Open era, before storming into her crowded summer calendar as the defending champion at Wimbledon and reigning Olympic gold medalist in Rio Janeiro,
Before Saturday's match, Williams had fallen a stunning victim to Roberta Vinci in the semifinal at last year's U. S. Open before another surprising defeat to Angelique Kerber at Australian Open in January.
The last time Williams lost at three major tournaments in a row was in 2014, when the losing streak led to a rededication to her craft, with the biggest change of which was to start working with her current coach, Patrick Mouratoglou.
