Garbine Muguruza targets return to top of world tennis

Wimbledon champion Garbine Muguruza remains keen for another taste of life at the top of the WTA rankings after making a promising start to 2018.

The Spaniard held top spot for a month last autumn in a season where the WTA top ranking was a revolving door, with five women holding the position during 2017.

World No 3 Muguruza arrived in the Emirates for the Dubai Duty Free Championships after losing out to resurgent Czech Petra Kvitova in the Doha final at the weekend.

The 24-year-old admits she keeps the goal of reaching the summit once again at the top of her tennis agenda.

"It is important," said Muguruza. "I always have it in my mind, to be able to fight for that. It was a great feeling to be there [number one], even though it's tough. I know it's the hardest one, but I'm going to be there, try to.

"You realise a lot of things when you're there. You're like, 'I'm here, I can't go more up, all I can do is go down. There's all these girls that want my spot, I have to defend it. You have this, like, alarm all the time'.

"I was already number one last year, it's less dramatic. I always know there's a chance. That's fine for me."

Muguruza will take on American Wild Card CiCi Bellis for a place in the Dubai quarter-finals on Wednesday.

Bellis, a 2017 quarter-finalist here, earned a date with the second seed after advancing past Belgium's Australian Open semi-finalist Elise Mertens 6-3 6-3.

"I've never played her before. It's definitely going to be a new experience for me. It will be fun. She's an unbelievable player," Bellis said.

"She's been at the top of the game for a while now. It will be great for me just to see where my game lines up against another one of the top players."

We will be covering the Rio Open, Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, and ATP 500 Acapulco this February on www.skysports.com/tennis with news, previews, live blogs, reports and expert analysis.