Julia Goerges labours against Dinara Safina to move into the third round of the Mutua Madrid Open
German Julia Goerges rallied past Russian wild card entrant Dinara Safina in a three set thriller on Wednesday. She registered a 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 win over the 25-year-old Russian to advance into the third round of the 2011 Mutua Madrilena
Madrid Open.
Ranked 27th in the WTA rankings, Goerges downed the former world number one in two hours and twenty minutes on their third career meeting. After this victory at Park Manzanares, the German now has a 2-1 lead against
Safina in the pair’s head-to-head.
The German started off the season in good form as she made a semi-final berth at Auckland in the start of the season. Later her form dipped but she reignited her magic in April and won her first title this season at Stuttgart after
dumping the world number one Caroline Wozniacki. Goerges carried her momentum into this WTA Premier Mandatory event and extended her winning streak to seven matches after overpowering 14th seeded Estonian Kaia Kanepi and Safina.
22-year-old displayed tremendous skills in the opening set as she held on to her entire serves spectacularly. She produced a higher first serve share of 54 percent as compared to Safina’s 48 percent and registered a convincing
67 percent win on it. Furthermore, Goerges faced zero breakpoint and converted one out of four breakpoint opportunities to her advantage to win the opener with a 6-4 score line.
Currently ranked at 76, Safina got back on track in the second set. She played poorly as she clobbered four double faults and had a lower 53 percent first serve share. The Russian also failed to save both breakpoint faced but she
fought back hard and converted all three breakpoint opportunities to her advantage to seal the equaliser by winning six games to German’s four.
Goerges re-focused into the final set and earned an impressive 74 percent win on her higher first serve share. She exchanged an early break and broke the Russian serve again near the end to clinch the decider with a 6-4 victory.
"Dinara was No.1 in the world so we know she's one of the best competitors on the tour," Goerges said. "Every ball was tough from her and she makes the game pretty tough for everybody so I did expect a tough match, for sure."
She will next face the world number one Caroline Wozniacki. The top seeded Dane trashed Serb Bojana Jovanovski in straight sets to reach this spot. The German is full confident as she overpowered Wozniacki two weeks ago at Stuttgart.
Later in the day, sixth seeded Chinese Na Li also advanced to the third round after dumping Czech Iveta Benesova with a breadstick.
Tags: