Julia Goerges beats Samantha Stosur in an epic second round battle – China Open 2012
World number 21, Julia Goerges, bullied her way into the third round of the China Open at the expense of the ninth ranked Aussie superstar, Samantha Stosur, on Tuesday. She won the opening set tie-breaker but failed to continue
the momentum in the second phase. However, a marvellous show in the final set allowed her to post the third head-to-head win against the former US Open Champion. Final scores of the contest were 7-6(2), 4-6, 7-5 in favour of the German superstar.
A gruelling encounter that lasted a fraction over two hours and 29 minutes featured some mind-startling display at both ends. However, Goerges was hammering her opponent and defeated her with the pace of the shots.
Goerges committed several unforced errors but that is always a feature of an aggressive play. Earlier in the season, the 23-year-old German was defeated by the Aussie superstar in the second round of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix
at Stuttgart so it was a revenge mission for the German diva who accomplished it with full authority.
The opening set witnessed a classic command on serves from both players. No one was able to break serve for the first six games. However, a turnaround in the clash was witnessed when the German star squeezed a breakthrough in the
seventh game and protected it with a serve hold. She was on course to win the opening set but couldn’t hold her serve in the 10th game that allowed Stosur to stay alive in the set.
A tie-breaker witnessed some terrific hitting from the German who passed the test with no tension at all.
Goerges failed to hold serve in the first game of the second set. It was the only moment when she couldn’t stamp her authority. The lead was kept intact until the end by the 28-year-old Aussie who survived an onslaught in the eighth
game before playing a 10 minutes long game without any luck.
A swap of breakpoints at the start of the final set was coupled with four successive serve holds that pushed the scores to 5-5. However, Stosur failed to hold serve on the fifth occurrence whilst Goerges did that confirmed her
place in the third round.
Julia Goerges meets the ninth seed French star, Marion Bartoli, in the next round.
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