As anticipated, let’s speak a bit on the match that Kayla Day has played against Garbiñe Muguruza in the third round of Indian Wells. Few lines on Kayla’s two previous matches can be found here.
The match between the two was tight and lasted for more than two hours, ending 3-6 7-5 6-2 in favour of the Spanish girl. I must admit that it was the first time I had the opportunity to see Kayla play; I knew her only due to her well-deserved reputation. The first aspect of Kayla I noted – to give some colour – was the grin she had on her face, which reminded me a bit of Martina Hingis: though, to be fair, Hingis’ grin was more cheeky (and irritating, though I loved her) than Kayla’s. The first aspect of the match I noted was that Muguruza was playing painfully bad, especially with her forehand: she committed six unforced errors in four games and missed a very easy smash in the fifth; Day, instead, was playing deep and heavy, returning well, varying her shots and just allowing her opponent to miss. After 15 minutes Muguruza was down 1-4 and was then broken again: I don’t know if Muguruza was playing so poorly because she was surprised by Kayla’s solid game, or because she was just having a bad Day (this is not a typo). I remark all this not to diminish the fantastic performance that Kayla offered during the match, but just to highlight that in my view, currently and despite the close struggle between the two, Day has not reached the level of Muguruza. When Muguruza rose to her level, a gap between the two players proved to exist (of course, given that Day is not even 18).
Serving for the set with a 5-1 lead, Day messed up a bit and Muguruza managed to get a break back: intelligently, Kayla immediately asked for a coaching. Then, despite a double fault and two unforced, and having saved two set points, Muguruza was able to hold and to move to 5-3; nevertheless, Kayla was not intimidated and found no troubles in holding her following service game, winning, thus, the first set by 6-3. At the end of the first sets stats showed only 4 winners by Day, and an enormous amount of unforced by Muguruza.
Before continuing to describe the match, I want to focus a bit on Kayla’s game: she is a lefty, and uses this feature to her advantage on odd points (as usually lefties do) by often moving her opponent off the court with her serve to be able to play her forehand against the opponent’s backhand. Her serve is quite powerful: I managed to catch its speed only seldom, though I saw twice Kayla hitting a first at over 110 mph and another time at 106 mph. The times I caught her second serve’s speed, it was around 90 mph. From the baseline, she hits a double-handed backhand. In my view Day tends to hit with more topspin than young players as Potapova or Kostyuk; maybe her backhand is often a bit flatter than her forehand, even if with the backhand can increase rotation as well and get a higher trajectory, in particular if she is attacked. Also due to her highly spinned shots, I have the impression that Kayla is not a player from whom to expect thousands of winners. Nevertheless, she owns a remarkably heavy ball and did not suffer the pace and power of an opponent as strong as Muguruza; moreover, she makes few unforced errors. I am not able to say which between Kayla’s forehand and backhand is better: even if in an interview she claims her forehand to be her big shot, I noticed that throughout all the match she was able to comfortably play her backhand against Muguruza’s forehand (which is not the best shot of the Spanish, though).
I can’t judge Kayla’s net game, since I remember her going for the net only in one occasion, in which, in any case, she was able to produce a very nice stop volley. Kayla also hit a couple of successful drop-shots with her backhand, but too few to judge if dropshots can be a weapon to her.
It is not easy to give a detailed judgement on this girl’s game (beside saying that it is good, which is quite evident from her results), due to the fact that, firstly, seeing a girl playing only one match is not enough (at least for me, I am only a long time experience amateur!) and, secondly, that Muguruza has played quite badly for half of the match and then she raised her level to the point that she barely missed any shot. What I would say, is that Kayla may not have the explosive and spectacular game of some of other juniors such as Kostyuk, but plays a more manoeuvred tennis; she is able to limit very much her mistakes, to keep a high pace during the struggles, and she quite often change the trajectory and spin of her shots; and she is tactically aware. Sometimes she prefers hitting, when under pressure, high balls to recover the position and cut her opponent’s rhythm, then trying immediate counter shots aiming at regaining control of the exchange. Anyhow, she does not seem to me to be a one-two kind of player, unless she can take a decisive advantage through her serve, which, due to its power and variety in angles, is an important weapon in her game. All the above, though, is still subject to further considerations: she is a girl I would like to see playing again before trying to form a complete idea of her game.
Going back to the match, also the second set started again in favour of Kayla who immediately reached a 15-30 lead in the first game having hit a real good return with her forehand; she was then unlucky to miss, on the following point, a backhand which would have been a winner hadn’t it ended just an inch out. Then Kayla made a mistake: she didn’t challenge immediately a dubious shot of Muguruza, waiting to see if her own defensive shot would have stayed in play: she thus lost her opportunity, following which Muguruza was able to hold her serve by hitting a winner. Kayla, by contrast, held her serve easily, not conceding points to her opponent. Having both players held again, on 2-2 Muguruza hit two double faults in a row, and conceded three breakpoints; eventually, she managed to save them all and to defend her serve again. From then on Muguruza started to try to move a bit more her opponent, since up to now, playing the Spaniard quite central, it was not difficult for Day to counter her opponent’s game. Moreover, Muguruza started more and more frequently to go for the net. On 3-2 in favour of Muguruza, the Spanish girl for the first time put the young American under pressure on her serve, gaining a lead of 15-30. Kayla, though, through a fantastic backhand passing shot (which opened the court for a further and easier forehand passing) followed by a bad return by Muguruza, was also able to hold again. Overall, the match was becoming more rapid, with Garbiñe managing to defend her serve with more ease, while Kayla was starting to find more problematic to keep her own. On 5-5, though, thanks to an unforced error from Muguruza, and a down the line backhand winner from Day, which followed a heavily lifted crosscourt forehand opening the court, Kayla was able to gain two further break-balls (basically two mini match points), which Muguruza saved thanks to consistent serves; finally, Muguruza was able to hold once more. On 6-5 in her favour, Muguruza continued to move her opponent, scored some winners and managed to gain two break-balls: she converted the first one and won the second set 7-5. At this stage, stats counted 11 break balls in favour of the American, 1 in favour of the Spanish, showed that Muguruza went for the net 22 times (unusual stat for her) winning 18 points and that the effectiveness of her serve improved a lot, having won 81% of points with her first serve, and 50% with her second. Though, also Kayla’s stats were good in the second set: she did not drop her level, as shown by the fact that she gained many more breakpoints than her opponent.
Having won the second set, Muguruza was enormously relieved, and after having held her serve on the opening game of the third set – even if with quite a bit of troubles – she managed to break the American and to hold again comfortably. Kayla’s game was not deep enough at this stage, making it easier for Muguruza to take control of the struggles. Though, the American showed once more that she owns quite a bit of winning mentality: she held at nil her following service turn and took a 15-30 lead on the succeeding game, thanks to a couple of unforced by Muguruza. Here there was the final turning point of the match: Kayla was dominating the exchange on 15-30 but missed a smash to close the point: such mistake allowed her opponent to hold her serve and extend her lead to 4-1. Even if Kayla successfully defended her serve in the following game, the match was virtually finished: Muguruza gained a 5-2 lead and the last point of the match was, sadly, I must say, a double fault by Kayla, who left the court crying.
In the second set Kayla has been twice close to break her opponent and gain an advantage which might have been decisive; in the third set she was close to catch up, not being able to gain two consecutive break points due to a missed smash. Kayla’s frustration at the end of the match was, thus, fully understandable, but she must be so proud of herself: take for granted that “intimidated by the opponent” is not the right adjective to describe her.
