Sara Errani devastates Julia Goerges in the opening battle – Dubai Tennis Championships 2013
World number seven, Sara Errani, had to dig deep in the contest before overcoming the German beauty queen, Julia Goerges, in the opening round of Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships. She battled extremely hard for two hour and
11 minutes to settle the final score line at 6-3, 4-6, 6-4, in her favour.
Seeded at number five in the tournament draw, Errani registered her second successive victory over the 20th ranked German in singles contests. Last time it was the quarter-final brawl in Barcelona, Spain, where the Italian
number one posted a straight sets victory against Goerges. She carried on her good form to register her 10th win of the 2013 WTA season in style.
It was an overall brilliant performance from the 25-year-old Italian, forcing Goerges to fall out of the tournament. Errani had a perfect start to the match and won the opening set convincingly. However, she went through a slump
in the following set, letting her German rival to backfire at her and dragging the match into the decisive third set. The world number seven held her poise in the final set and turned the tables on Goerges to conclude her hard-fought victory.
"She was playing the ball very strong - maybe I've never seen somebody hitting that strong on the forehand," Errani said afterwards. "She was also serving strong and the court is fast, so it wasn't easy. I just tried to defend,
tried to play my game, make as few unforced errors as possible and try to put the ball back when I could - it was a tough challenge, but of course I'm very happy I could win. I tried to play more on the backhand, for sure," she said. "I just tried to play
to her backhand when I could, because with her forehand it was just impossible to play. She was making winners everywhere. It was very tough."
Errani will play her second round match against the Romanian youngster, Sorana Cirstea, for a place in the quarter-finals of the tournament. Unseeded Cirstea stunned the 2013 Australian Open semi-finalist, Sloane Stephens, in the
opening round battle a day ago.
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