Julia Goerges plonks Garbine Muguruza Blanco to reach the quarters – Barcelona Ladies Open 2012
German second seed, Julia Goerges, strained past the 18-year-old Spaniard, Garbine Muguruza Blanco, in the second round of the Barcelona Ladies Open on Thursday. She won the match 7-5, 5-7, 6-2 and registered her first head-to-head
against the Spaniard in their maiden professional contest.
It was a gruelling battle that lasted two hours and 20 minutes. World number 16, Goerges, is the second seed contestant in the tournament and after the departure of the top seed Italian, Francesca Schiavone, in the opening round,
she is the hot favourite player to win her first title this year.
The match started off with a serve hold at both ends before an exchange of breakpoints took place. Both players repeated the similar trend in the next four games but added two more breakpoints to keep the scores level at 5-5. It
was the German who took registered the vital serve hold and coupled it with a stunning breakthrough to take the first set.
Both players kept on trading breakpoints in the second set as well. Apart from a rare serve holds in the midst of it; three breakpoints were shared by each player in the first eight games of the second set. Scores were tied at
5-5 and this time the teenager struck back at her opponent with a sublime performance; broke serve and won the set with a tight serve hold.
The final set was not competent at all. The German took hold from the start with a breakthrough in the fourth game and trounced the tiring teen with another breakpoint.
In a post-match interview, the beauty queen from Germany stated, “Garbiñe is a really talented player. She's very young with great skills, and she has all the makings to be a good player. The great result at Miami is not a surprise
and from now on we'll see her at this level I'm sure.”
She further added, “It was a tough match today, not just physically hard, but mentally too. I was trying to stay focused on hitting deep and looking for angles to move her." Talking about her supreme run this year that helped her
to climb up to the number 16 spot in the world rankings, she said, “I'm in the best moments of my career at the moment, and the start of the clay court season is really important to me.”
Goerges will take on the seventh seed Israeli player, Sara Errani, in the next round.
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