Julia Goerges slays Barbora Zahlavova Strycova to reach round two - Swedish Cup 2012
German second seed, Julia Goerges, eased past the 26-year-old Czech, Barbora Zahlavova Strycova, in the opening round clash during the Sony Ericsson Swedish Open. On the eve of Tuesday, the 23-year-old German bagged straight sets 6-2, 6-2 victory to wipe off the grudges of her loss earlier this week from the same competitor.
Goerges was on top of her game right from the word go. She bagged the opening serve game with no problem at all and forced her opponent to save three breakpoints in the following game. It was an aggressive start from the hard hitting German who was in no mood to repeat a similar performance that was witnessed just four days ago.
Strycova defeated the second seed German in the quarter-final of the tournament in Palermo, last week. It was a shock to the 24th ranked German but she learnt her lesson from that loss and came out top on the eve of Tuesday.
The 60th ranked Czech won the first breakpoint of the match but squandered the opportunity to dominate the proceedings with a pathetic serve game. From that point of play, Goerges rocked the show; pocketed two back-to-back breakpoints and lost just one point on her serve to lead the set scores one nil.
In the start of the second set, Goerges managed to hold serve after an intense battle. However, the following six games witnessed back-to-back breakthroughs that manoeuvred the scores to 4-2 in favour of the German. Once again, the second seed starlet came on top and bagged the second serve hold of the match that piled a lead of 5-2 on her rival.
Strycova looked a completely different player on the clay courts of Bastad, Sweden. She failed to hold serve even once in the second set and that proved to be the biggest factor in her downfall. The German is now comfortably place in the second round of the tournament.
Goerges leads the head-to-head series by 3-1 against Strycova courtesy this triumph. She is the second favourite to win the title and at least reach the final stage of the tournament. Next up for the German is the Slovenien star, Polona Hercog.
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