Lesia Tsurenko rains on Muguruza's parade

Here comes the rain again
Falling on my head like a memory
Falling on my head like a new emotion

The umpire said "Game, set, match--Tsurenko." Then, no sooner than the handshake was finished and the defending champion had walked off the court, the clouds dumped heavy rain all over the Western and Southern Open. 

Was it falling on Garbine Muguruza's head like a memory? Probably, but maybe not like a new emotion.

It was cloudy and a bit dark when the match began. I was sleepy and exhausted, so I assumed that I was projecting my own state onto the event. It wasn't just that, however. The match was a languid ordeal that never really caught fire. There were some nice rallies and some good shots. Muguruza, when she was switched on, was--as always--a joy to watch. 

But there was just something dark and cloudy about the entire affair, despite Muguruza's kit, which cheered some of us.

Stunner in Cincinnati 😱

World No.44 Lesia Tsurenko scores her first Top 10 win since 2015, upsetting defending champion Garbine Muguruza 2-6 6-4 6-4. #CincyTennis pic.twitter.com/wF5TgNHiaP

— Western & Southern Open (@CincyTennis) August 15, 2018

But let me stop here and give credit to Lesia Tsurenko, who didn't allow the sight of the defending champion to take her off of her own mission. The first set, won at 6-2, belonged to Muguruza, but anyone who watches the tour regularly knows that--with certain players--that doesn't "mean" anything. In the second set, the defending champion started to mugu around the court, hitting fourteen unforced errors, and letting a suddenly precise Tsurenko take over. The Ukrainian player took that set 6-4.

The third set looked like the script for the expected plot. Muguruza regained her momentum and accuracy to go up 3-0. Soon it was 4-1, and then it happened: Tsurenko was able to break back, and at 4-all, the writing wasn't yet on the wall, but the wall looked like it might crack. Tsurenko served for the match at 5-4 and double-faulted, which is often a sign that a lower-ranked player has the match-closing blues, but Muguruza couldn't take advantage. A shot into the net and then a long forehand ended the match, and Tsurenko walked away into the rain with a 2-6, 6-4, 6-4.

Muguruza made 43 unforced errors in the two-hour contest. Afterwards, she conceded that she hadn't played at the right level, but that she was controlling the match before her opponent came back, "so I'll take that." 

Garbine Muguruza brings a strange kind of inconsistency to the tour. She loses when we think she should win, and then--sometimes, when we don't necessarily expect it--she wins the biggest prizes in the sport. When she's "herself," she plays with a fluidity that we rarely see. Other times, she loses in her first round at a Premier 5 event.

As for Tsurenko, she'll next face Ekaterina Makarova (my most memorable player from last year), who defeated Alize Cornet in straight sets in the second round.