Spanish fourth seed Garbine Muguruza will relish the extra recovery time as she prepares for her first Brisbane International semifinal after a straight-sets dismissal of dual major winner Svetlana Kuznetsova on Thursday.
The French Open champion battled for nearly six hours total to see off Sam Stosur and Daria Kasatikina – both 7-5 in the third sets – ahead of her quarterfinal clash with the fifth-seeded Russian.
She registerd the 7-5 6-4 victory in one hour and 50 minutes, more than an hour less than the time it took her in either of her first two matches of 2017.
Next up is unseeded Frenchwoman Alize Cornet, who upset No.2 seed Dominika Cibulkova earlier.
Down 1-4 at one stage in the first set, Muguruza failed to convert two set points at 4-5, but recovered strongly to stay on course for her first WTA final since her win at last year’s French Open.
“The matches I’m playing here, the more hours I spend, especially at this level, … it’s going to help me,” she said.
“Doesn’t matter (just) for Australia. It’s going to help me for the year in general.
“I know with Cornet it is going to be a battle, a fighter, so I expect another tough match.”