Julia Goerges survives Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova to reach round two - Porsche Tennis Grand Prix 2012
Julia Goerges of Germany survived the only three-setter clash of Tuesday in the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix against the Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia. It was the first round battle that lasted for two hours and 13 minutes before
the local beauty queen clasped the second round berth with final scores of 5-7, 6-3, 6-4.
Goerges has seen a major slump in her ranking in the past week dropping to the 21st spot from 15th rank. Russian tennis ace, Pavlyuchenkova is ranked 23rd in the world so technically it was a clash
of titans and it proved out to be one. However, a gruelling fight didn’t help the Russian to level the head-to-head scores and have her revenge of the last year’s clay court loss in Madrid Open.
In a post-match interview, the German stated, "It's not normal I come here as defending champion. It was a new situation and I was a little bit nervous and tight at the beginning, but I am happy I managed all of it at the end and
was able to fight through today. Of course there will be expectations and pressure on you, but every sport's the same, and if you're able to manage it well you can keep going higher."
The opening set witnessed a taxing battle with no breakthrough for the first 10 games. However, the Russian stood up and broke serve to take the lead and silence the crowd. She won the first set with a tight serve hold and hinted
another early exit for the frustrated German.
Pavlyuchenkova started well in the second set but lost breakthrough in the fourth game that proved to be pivotal in deciding the winner of the set. It was one of the most brilliant comebacks from the German that lifted her morale.
In the final set, it was Goerges who won an early breakpoint in the third game that helped her to achieve her goal. The Russian tried her luck but it didn’t work out. She was allotted no opportunity to break serve that confirmed
the triumph for the German.
Julia Goerges will be up against the likes of the fifth seed Aussie contender, Samantha Stosur, in the second round. Talking about that clash, she mentioned, “Sam is a Grand Slam champion and No.5 in the world, so obviously she's
a great player. She's a great person too - I have to say she's a nice girl and I get along well with her.”
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