Melbourne - Garbine Muguruza said she was taken by surprise
by a brilliant Coco Vandeweghe after her upset defeat in the Australian Open
quarter-finals on Tuesday.
The French Open champion was blasted off court by the
unseeded American, including an embarrassingly one-sided second set in the 6-4,
6-0 loss.
"I was surprised. I think she played unbelievable.
Three times we played in the past, she didn't show this level," Muguruza
said.
"She played very good. Her serve, her shots were there.
She barely missed."
But Muguruza added: "I have zero regrets about my
performance.
"I think when you play with someone that has the power
to disturb like this, to hit these kind of shots, and has a good day, I mean,
it's difficult honestly."
Despite winning at Roland Garros last year Muguruza, 23,
struggled with consistency in 2016.
But she had been in good touch at the season-opening
Brisbane International and in Melbourne, until the big-hitting and confident
Vandeweghe came along.
The American described her second set performance as
"like a freight train, you couldn't stop it", with Muguruza having no
answers.
The Spaniard said it had been a good start to the year, with
plenty to look forward to.
"I'm very happy. I think it's a very good start of the year. I trained hard to kind of start well," she said.
"You never know if it's going to happen or not. So I'm
pleased with the two tournaments I played.
"Even though I felt my body wasn't 100 percent and I didn't know how far I was going to go here, but I think I went pretty far."