MELBOURNE • Former world No. 1 Garbine Muguruza powered into the Australian Open quarter-finals yesterday, underlining her return to form since reviving her partnership with Conchita Martinez, who joked that they were tennis' Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston.
Unseeded Muguruza, who suffered a torrid run of results last season, beat ninth seed Kiki Bertens 6-3, 6-3 and next faces 30th seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.
Muguruza, a two-time Grand Slam champion, reunited with fellow Spaniard Martinez in late November after she failed to string two wins together at any point after the French Open in May-June.
Muguruza, who won Wimbledon 2017 with Martinez in her corner, said she was happy to renew the arrangement with the Spanish great.
"I think being an ex-player, she understands me pretty fast," said the 26-year-old, whose participation at Melbourne Park had been in doubt due to illness.
"It's not a guarantee, but I'm happy to have her in my team."
The 47-year-old Martinez, who was a coaching consultant to Muguruza in 2017-18, said there was an inevitability about the two of them working together again.
"It's like couples, we all want Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston to get back together, right?" joked the 1994 Wimbledon champion. "You can see on the court now... She's very, very aggressive, as (aggressive) as when she was playing her best tennis," Martinez added.
Muguruza ended last year ranked 36th, the first time since 2014 that she has finished the year outside the top 20.
As part of her reboot, Muguruza climbed Mount Kilimanjaro in the off-season and with the mountain air in her nostrils and Martinez in her camp, she has flickered back to life. She reached the semi-finals in Shenzhen at the start of the year, before pulling out of the quarter-finals in Hobart with a virus.
Another Grand Slam winner experiencing a resurgence is world No. 15 Stan Wawrinka, 34.
The 2014 champion here said he played his best match since knee surgery threatened to derail his career, as he upset world No. 4 Daniil Medvedev yesterday.
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SELECTED RESULTS
MEN'S 4TH RD
Dominic Thiem (Aut) bt Gael Monfils (Fra) 6-2 6-4 6-4, Stan Wawrinka (Sui) bt Daniil Medvedev (Rus) 6-2 2-6 4-6 7-6(7-2) 6-2, Alexander Zverev (Ger) bt Andrey Rublev (Rus) 6-4 6-4 6-4.
WOMEN'S 4TH RD
Simona Halep (Rom) bt Elise Mertens (Bel) 6-4 6-4, Anett Kontaveit (Est) bt Iga Swiatek (Pol) 6-7(4-7) 7-5 7-5, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (Rus) bt Angelique Kerber (Ger) 6-7(5-7) 7-6(7-4) 6-2.
The Swiss dug deep to come from behind in five intense sets and win 6-2, 2-6, 4-6, 7-6 (7-2), 6-2. It set up a last-eight meeting with German seventh seed Alexander Zverev.
"I think last time I played so well was before the surgery... Physically I'm moving better than last year. So I'm improving," he said.
Wawrinka has not won a title since pocketing the 16th of his career on the Geneva clay in 2017, with two bouts of surgery on his left knee that year pushing him to the brink of retirement.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
