Jelena Jankovic moves into the second round; Julia Goerges retires – Apia International Sydney 2012
Serb former world number one, Jelena Jankovic, was leading the scores with 6-1, 3-1, when the German, Julia Goerges, injured herself and retired from the Apia International Sydney tournament during the first round clash. World
number 23, Goerges had pretty hectic couple of weeks at the start of the season, as she participated in Brisbane tournament in singles and doubles category and then came straight to the Sydney Olympic Park to contest against Jankovic. The match lasted for
just 55 minutes before German injured herself and pulled out of the competition.
It was the fourth encounter between the two tennis aces; world number 14, Jankovic, lead the head-to-head score by 2-1 before this match; tamed performance and early retirement helped her to doubled pocket another match. There
were no massive celebrations by the former world number one as her opponent was clearly in pain and sorrow scenes were witnessed at the court.
The first Grand Slam title of the year, the Australian Open, is around the corner and everyone is preparing for the one of the four biggest events in the world of tennis. Both these players landed the courts with the same mentality
but the Goerges might regret her participation as the injury looked pretty bad; participation in the Australian Open is in doubt for her.
Jankovic was on top of her game as she commenced the match with a break and held her serve to take 2-0 lead upfront. Both players held their respective serves in the next three games; scores were 3-1 at that stage. Serb helped
herself to win another break with a perfectly placed drop shot that forced the fatigued German to stretch. It was the moment when the German seemed to have injured herself and was feeling a strain on her left leg and lower back.
Serb continued her domination and broke once more in the seventh game to round off the first set in her favour; majestic performance and some strain for her opponent were clearly pointing towards an easy triumph for world number
14. Tournament’s field is pretty tough as nine of the top ten players of the world are participating and this puts a lot of pressure on everyone to perform their best n order to send a strong message to their opponents.
German was clearly struggling to perform as her injury was growing in pain. Jankovic broke in the fourth game to take 3-1 lead and at that moment Goerges decided to retire. Victory to Jankovic will place a berth for her in the
second round draw as she faces the Belarusian third seed, Victoria Azarenka.
Tags: