Legend Bio: Garbine Muguruza

Venezuela-born Garbiñe Muguruza burst on to the WTA Tour in emphatic fashion at the 2012 Miami Open. Making her WTA main draw debut as a wild card, the 18-year-old Spaniard defeated No.9-ranked Vera Zvonareva in the second round for her first Top 10 win, before advancing to the fourth round. It was a sign of things to come: over the course of a decade, Muguruza's powerful, aggressive baseline game and remarkable ability to peak when it mattered resulted in some of the sport’s biggest prizes.

Having collected her first WTA title at Hobart at the beginning of 2014, Muguruza advanced to her first Grand Slam quarterfinal at Roland Garros, where she shocked Serena Williams in the second round. The following year, the Spaniard advanced to her first Grand Slam final at Wimbledon; while Serena had her measure on that occasion, Muguruza had done enough to ensure her Top 10 debut. After capturing her first WTA 1000 title at Beijing, she qualified for the WTA Finals for the first time and duly finished the 2015 season ranked No.3.

Her spectacular trajectory continued in 2016, when she turned the tables on Serena to capture her maiden Grand Slam title in Paris. A second major title followed in 2017 when she triumphed at Wimbledon, this time overcoming Venus Williams for the trophy. With those victories, Muguruza became the only player to defeat both Williams sisters in a Grand Slam final. Two months later, after winning another WTA 1000 title at Cincinnati and reaching the fourth round at the US Open, Muguruza attained the No.1 ranking on September 11 and spent four weeks in the top spot. 

After the 2018 and 2019 seasons brought back-to-back titles at Monterrey, a WTA 250 event, Muguruza reached a fourth Grand Slam final at the Australian Open in 2020. Although the favorite, she was defeated by Sofia Kenin but the run marked the beginning of a resurgence.

In 2021, she registered a career-best 42 match wins and reached five finals, winning a third WTA 1000 title at Dubai as well as a smaller event in Chicago, before punctuating her career with a 10th and last title at the 2021 WTA Finals in Guadalajara. By defeating Anett Kontaveit for the coveted Billie Jean King Trophy, Muguruza became the first Spaniard to win the season-ending championship and she duly finished the year at No.3 – the third Top 5 finish of her career.

WTA Singles Player of the Year and ITF World Champion in 2017, as well as a two-time Olympian, Muguruza also enjoyed considerable success in doubles. In the team discipline she achieved a career-high ranking of No.10 and won five titles – three of them with fellow Spaniard Carla Suárez Navarro, with whom she reached the title bout at the WTA Finals in Singapore in 2015. She represented Spain in Fed Cup competition from 2015 to 2019 and at the Olympic Games in 2016 and 2021 and finished her career with a singles win-loss record of 449-238.

Since 2017, Muguruza became an ambassador for Room To Read, a global non-profit that focuses on literacy and girls’ education in historically low-income communities. Following her retirement in 2024, she joined the Laureus World Sports Academy, the global philanthropic organization. She also transitioned into tournament leadership, appointed tournament director of the WTA Finals Riyadh with a three-year tenure from 2024-26 and, starting in 2026, as co-tournament director of the Mutua Madrid Open alongside Feliciano López. 

Muguruza married Spanish businessman Arthur Borges in October 2024 and gave birth to their son, Marcos, in January 2026.