Julia Goerges battles past Lucie Safarova to advance into the third round – French Open 2011
Seventeenth seeded German Julia Goerges showed her class to register a three set comeback victory against Czech Lucie Safarova to advance into the third round of the 2011 Roland Garros, a WTA Slam event held in Paris, France. 22-year-old
German registered a 2-6, 7-5, 6-2 victory over the Czech, two years older than her, on Wednesday.
World number eighteen, Goerges lost the opener but outclassed the Czech by making an epic comeback with an hour long equaliser set to book a third round spot at Stade Roland Garros. She now leads the head-to-head series by 2-1
against Safarova, ranked 19 places below her.
Safarova, who showed her skills at Kuala Lumpur where she reached the final, made quick in-roads and held her opening ser to level the scores 1-1. After she was trailing 1-2, the Italian unleashed her flurry of ground strokes to
reel off next five games in a row and clinched an assuring 6-2 win in thirty-four minutes. She produced an awesome 70 percent first serve share as compared to Goerges’ 27 percent and registered an impressive 76 percent win on it.
The higher ranked German carried her losing ways in the second set and lost her serve in the very first game. She was trailing 1-3 but roared back in the eighth game with the help from Safarova’s backhands’ errors to square the
scores at 4-4. Later, Goerges kept her remaining serves convincingly and broke the Italian’s serve again in the last game to seal the set with a 7-5 victory in fifty-five minutes.
She maintained her winning ways into the decider and raised her level of game as well. Goerges hammered exquisite forehands to win the first three games in a row before Safarova could hold on. She broke the Czech's serve again
in the last game to pocket the set with a 6-2 win.
The German had a ten match winning streak this season before Azarenka halted her in the semi-finals at Madrid. She also won the title at Stuttgart and triumphed over world number one Caroline Wozniacki twice in this streak. Goerges
kept her winning momentum into this major clay court event and trashed French woman Mathilde Johansson with a breadstick in her opening round match.
Eleventh seeded Marion Bartoli would be Goerges next target in the third round. Bartoli will be playing at her home soil and the crowd would be supporting her. With her current form, the German can reach far in this tournament
by overcoming hostile conditions and threats from anyone.
Tags: