Andrea Petkovic shocks Julia Goerges to enter quarters – Nurnberger Versicherungscup 2013
In an all-German affair, the former top 10 Andrea Petkovic showed exceptional tennis skills to outclass her fourth seeded compatriot, Julia Goerges in straight sets at the Nurnberger Versicherungscup 2013 on Wednesday.
She notched up a 6-1, 7-5 victory against the seed to make her first quarter-final berth this season.
The former world number nine, Petkovic re-kindled her old spark at this clay court tournament. Both challengers met each other at the qualifying competition in Sydney five years ago and after conquering this match, Petkovic avenged her defeat.
The German wild card entrant was quoted in a courtside interview after clinching the match, “It was definitely tough. I think we were both really nervous in the beginning and then after two games I settled down a little bit and relaxed. Toward the end, Julia
brought her game to another level and I was struggling. I'm really happy with my service game at 5-5. It was a great atmosphere with the home crowd, although they didn't really know who to cheer for. And the nice thing is with all the injuries, that I really
appreciate it much more now and I'm really happy about any kind of win.”
Petkovic went berserk after entering this WTA International level event. After Goerges held her serve in the opening game, the lower ranked German unleashed a barrage of groundstrokes and reeled off six games. She cashed three break chances to pull out the
opener with a breadstick.
Currently ranked 103rd in the WTA Premier Rankings, Petkovic lost her track in the second set. She suffered the first blow in the opening game and trailed at 0-1. However, the former top 10 German capitalised on two break opportunities and jumped to a 5-3
lead. Despite squandering her chance to serving out the set, Petkovic remained calm and got the breakthrough in the last game. She eventually sealed the set by winning seven games to five.
Summing up the 25-year-old’s performance, Petkovic manufactured a better first serve share of 64 per cent in contrast with her compatriot’s 37 per cent and amazingly availed 24 out of 35 points on it. She also capitalised on five double faults Gorges committed
and smashed four aces.
Next in queue for Petkovic is another local seed, Annika Beck. The eighth seed triumphed over the Italian contestant, Karin Knapp, in straight sets to set-up this match. Beck showed brilliant skills to record a 6-4, 6-2 victory against the Italian.
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