Auckland winner Julia Görges has successfully started the Australian Open and has impressively documented her form strength in the first-round match against the aspiring American Sofia Kenin.
From Ulrike Weinrich from Melbourne
Not only for Boris Becker, Julia Görges is one of the very hot title favourites at her favourite tournament. One from the second row, but therefore not to take less seriously at the 2018 Grand Slam start. And the World Rankings twelfth met the new role of “Black Horse” in their opening game, which was by no means easy. In the end,”Jule” won the endurance test in 1:19 hours with 6:4,6:4 against Kenin’s talent and celebrated her 15th birthday across the seasons. I really can’t complain about my form. Every single player in the field has a chance to win here. That’s what makes it so exciting this time around and is an additional motivation for all of us,”said Görges at the court interview.
With her 19-year-old opponent from Florida, the young woman from the Electoral Regensburg team had been training on the edge of the Tournament in Auckland, which Görges won in the end. Already there she was able to convince herself of the talent of the Moscow-born Kenin – and was impressed by the potential of the teenager.
The next opponent of Görges is Alizé Cornet from France (WTA No. 42) on Wednesday at her tenth Happy Slam participation. The Fed Cup player is still waiting for her first quarter-final draw at one of the four majors. But after a run of last three tournament coups in a row, the chances of making the first-ever jump into the elite club of the last eight have never been so good.
In the first round alone, Görges scored nine aces in the futuristic Hisense Arena. When the first serve came, she also scored in 88 percent of the cases. After changing the racquet at 3:3, she got two forehand winners one after the other – and a short time later her first break was perfect.
Kenin, the No. 102 in the ranking, did not let up after losing the first set and gave Görges a hard exchange of blows for a long time. In the narrow phase at the beginning of the second round, however, the German number one was also able to rely on its impact strength. She fought off Kenin’s three break chances in this phase and set the course for success with sovereign point wins. The self-confidence after the dream race of the last few months was clearly evident in Görges, who will not start in the doubles for the 2018 Grand Slams. With her a total of 34. Winner she sealed the perfect prelude.
Becker, who won the Australian Open twice, also believes that Görges Down Under has a lot to offer:”Much depends on the daily and weekly form. Whoever gets a good form in the second week of the tournament can win the title. Like Angelique Kerber two years ago, when she won in Melbourne, Görges can push her to the top,”said the 50-year-old in the Süddeutsche Zeitung.