Victoria Azarenka beats Julia Goerges to lift the trophy – Generali Ladies Linz 2012
A world class battle was witnessed at the hard courts of Austria when the reigning world number one, Victoria Azarenka, took on the 19th ranked German star, Julia Goerges, in the grand finale of the Generali Ladies Linz on Sunday. Both players had a fantastic week and were ready to bid for the trophy with the 23-year-old Belarusian being the hot favourite for the conquest.
Goerges showed some nerves at the start and lost the opening set 3-6, however, she didn’t show any kind of lack of spirit in the second phase and fought back from 0-5 down to bring it level on serves but couldn’t squeeze another serve hold to equalize and lost the battle 4-6.
In a post-match interview, Azarenka commented about the second set stating, “At 5-0 it felt like such a comfortable lead. I think I won seven games in a row at that point. But then Julia just went for her shots, and I kind of misjudged the situation. I felt like the match was already in my hands, but Julia is such an unpredictable player, and the momentum can turn around really quickly with her, and it did. I wasn't really expecting to have such a change.”
She further added, “I’m glad I stayed in the moment. I did the right things at that moment to finish the match and I'm very happy I managed to win today.”
The 23-year-old German lost the breakpoint in the opening game but did well to stay in touch until the ninth game of the match when she failed to win a single point on her serve and gifted the opening set to her opponent. It was a good start from the Belarusian but not as convincing as her previous conquests.
In the second set, Azarenka broke serve twice in succession to make it 5-0 in her favour but sloppy play in the following phase allowed Goerges to bounce back and bring the trail down to 4-5. She was serving to equalize the scores but the luck didn’t favour her at all and she dropped a breakpoint that proved to be the final action of the day.
Azarenka is unbeaten for 13 matches since the final of the US Open and haven’t lost a yet in any of the battles since losing to the former world number one, Serena Williams, at New York. She will start the tour of Istanbul at a very high-note probably aiming to go for the title with all force.
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