Spanish tennis star Garbiñe Muguruza has achieved one of her lifelong dreams: she has become the top-ranked tennis player in the world.  The title became hers after Karolina Plisková of the Czech Republic was defeated by CoCo Vandewehe of the United States (7-6 (4) y 6-3) in the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open on Sept 6. Garbiñe will be officially crowned the world’s number one tennis player when the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) publishes its updated ranking on Sept. 11.

I have now had three very good weeks on the tour that will finish next week at the US Open. I decided to play in Stanford despite its coming so soon after Wimbledon and I did not regret it. Things went very well and my victory in Cincinnati is the result of all the work I have done this season, which is bearing fruit.

Athletes' sporting achievements boost their social media profiles. The more relevant their victories, the more their followings grow. This is exactly what happened to Garbiñe Muguruza right after conquering her first Wimbledon Grand Slam; she’s become the most popular top-five tennis player on Instagram.

I fell in love with Paris a long time ago. It was the spring of 2013 when I went to Roland Garros for the first time. Having grown up playing on clay courts in my hometown of Caracas and then later in Barcelona, this love was only natural. It’s true that I play more aggressively than a typical clay court player due to the way I’m built, but there’s no denying that clay courts make me feel at home.

It’s hard to believe we’re already in Miami. It’s all happening too quickly… We left Indian Wells and arrived on Friday and yesterday I had my first contact with Miami’s courts.

I’m writing from Ostrava, where we’ll be playing against the Czech Republic in the first round of the Fed Cup. It is always a pleasure to get Conchita Martínez’s call and have the opportunity to represent Spain and spend a week with the team. It is quite different from the everyday grind at the circuit, the vibe is great and I really love it. We spend a lot of time together and we all feel part of something important.

A tennis player's life is strange that way. When you're in the pre-season training, stuck in the same place, you start missing the airplanes, hotels and specially the competition. I had only two weeks' vacation, when, as you know, I went to Egypt –which was something I really wanted to do and was on my "to do" list– and then I spent some time just lazing on the sofa. I made the most of those days to follow the treatment for my ankle. Everything went fine and we began training straight away.

In a year brimming with stellar sporting events, BBVA’s ambassadors and sponsored teams excelled. The Rio Games, the Copa America Centenario, the NBA, tennis and soccer tournaments are just some of the stages in which they proved their worth.

Hi everyone. This time I’m writing from sunny California, in the U.S. This is the second year in a row that I have come here for the second part of the preseason.

So… vacation time is over and my preseason starts this very day. Gone is the 2016 season. A season that I will never forget, having won at Roland Garros and after making it for second year in a row to the WTA Finals. I’m so proud of these achievements, but they are all part of the past now, and, starting today, I’m be looking to 2017.

It's hard to believe, but it’s already been a year since the last time we were here. We arrived at Singapore yesterday, and now we’re gearing up to, hopefully, do things right in the year’s last tournament. It will be extremely hard, because only the season’s 8 best players play in the WTA Finals. As you know, Serena will not be here, but the tournament is going to be just as hard.

We’ve reached the end of the season. It has been a long and demanding summer, so it was great to get the chance to spend almost two weeks at home. First, to get some much needed rest. I had been traveling for more than two months and wanted to sleep in my bed. That’s a long time to be away, with long trips, heat and hotels.

Just a little time left before the competition starts and it feels like yesterday that we were at this small housing complex in Wimbledon, last year. We’re barely at a ten-minute walk from the training courts, and that’s just wonderful.

Eight of today’s top stories:

The Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) is the leading women’s professional tennis association. It is integrated by over 2500 players from 92 countries which compete in 55 events of the WTA Tour and four Grand Slams in 33 countries.

How important is a good serve in women’s tennis? By how many percentage points does a player need to improve her serve to climb a position in the WTA ranking? Does it take a minimum number of cross-court slice backhands to beat a specific rival? The answers to these and other questions that anyone, from fans to tennis players and their coaches, may ask are nothing but the result of measurements that are very easy to take. Current Big Data technology is capable of this and much more and, properly applied, could play a decisive role in winning games, changing training plans, or tactics in real time and contributing to decision making processes.

For years, IBM has been showcasing the prowess of its ‘technological beasts’ to the world through different applications in the world of sports. In one of the most famous instances of this approach, Deeper Blue, Deep Blue’s successor, managed to defeat Gary Kasparov himself, although the outcome was somewhat controversial. Now, both the men’s (ATP) and women’s (WTA) circuits in the world of tennis have been added to the company’s scope of action.

BBVA decided to enter the world of sports sponsorship, and particularly football and basketball, because it provides a means of creating a relationship with millions of people all over the planet. The love of sport is a part of people's everyday lives, far removed from other more elitist pursuits, and which inspires passion, excitement and dreams. The Liga BBVA, the most widely followed competition in the world, and the NBA, for which BBVA is the ‘official bank’, are clear examples of competitions representing the Bank's global appeal and with massive audiences in many of the developing markets where the Group is present.

Garbiñe Muguruza is back in competition. The BBVA Ambassador discussed the current state of affairs in the women’s circuit, and was happy to take a look back at her successful campaign in this year’s Wimbledon. But, being the winner she is, the Spanish-Venezuelan tennis player is already eyeing new challenges. The first of them will be in Toronto and the next in Cincinnati, to arrive at the US Open in optimal conditions.

The WTA ranking  is based on the 52-week tennis calendar and is updated every Monday, except during the course of the Grand Slams and Indian Wells and Miami tournaments, simply because they are two-week events.

Now we know something more about Garbiñe Muguruza’s tennis, after seeing fight all the way to the end against the world’s number 1, Serena Williams, in the Wimbledon 2015 final.

Spain had a lot to do with the birth of the modern game of tennis. Although its origins date back to the Greek, Roman and Egyptian cultures, it was a Spaniard who, with help from his English friend, invented tennis in the late 19th century in England.

Garbiñe Muguruza, who fell against US’ Serena Williams, the world’s number one, 6-4  6-4 in this year’s Wimbledon final, was just a few steps away from glory at the All England Club, like Lili Álvarez and Arantxa Sánchez Vicario years ago. Conchita Martinez remains the only Spanish female player to accomplish this feat.

Despite falling in the Wimbledon finals against the world’s top seed (6-4 and 6-4, in one hour and 22 minutes), Spanish-Venezuelan player Garbiñe Muguruza proved that she’s a worthy heir to Arantxa Sánchez-Vicario and Conchita Martínez, the two most prominent figures of the “golden age” of the Spanish women’s tennis.

Garbiñe Muguruza, started dominating the match but finally conceded before an experienced Serena Williams, who ended up lifting her sixth Wimbledon trophy - and 21st Grand Slam title of her career - in straight sets (6-4 6-4),. The Spaniard leaves the tournament with her head up high, after a very successful run.

Garbiñe Muguruza and Carla Suarez outdid Czechs Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hrdecka 6-4 6-4 to win the Birmingham WTA Premier doubles title.