Julia Görges and Melbourne – that’s a perfect fit: the form-strong series winner would like to get as far with her favourite major as never before. Her mission began successfully.
From Ulrike Weinrich from Melbourne
Julia Görges obviously feels very comfortable these days with her Happy Slam. That’s not only because of her fantastic record of 15 consecutive cross-seasonal victories,”she said after a convincing 6:4,6:4 in the first round against US teen Sofia Kenin.
The successes of the last few months, coupled with the flair of Melbourne, offer Görges in the city on the Yarra River their very personal summer oasis of well-being “The Australian Open is by far the most beautiful of the Grand Slam tournaments. It’s just the most relaxed place there. Many people come here painted and with flags,”emphasized the 29-year-old and summed up the special atmosphere in one sentence:” People create a holiday feeling.
But to the trip with the tram to the nearby St. Kilda Beach Görges doesn’t have time, of course, despite the increasingly hot weather. The electoral rainbowwoman has a completely different mission down under. Not only for Boris Becker, she is one of the very hot title favourites. One of the second rows, but not less serious at the major start in 2018. And the new role as “Dark Horse” in their opening game, which was by no means easy, was fully justified by the world rankings twelfth.
“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 after the endurance test of just under 80 minutes. With her 19-year-old opponent from Florida,”Jule” had last trained 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 (WTA No. 42) on Wednesday at her tenth Happy Slam participation. She has trained with the French woman many times before – the match record of 5-0 victories clearly speaks for the German number one, but this is no guarantee that things will work out again,”she warned caution. Görges is still waiting for her first quarter-final draw with one of the four majors. She’s been close before. 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 of their 14 aces in the futuristic Hisense Arena:”The serve is one of my biggest weapons. 91 percent of the time, when the first service came, she scored the point. After Görges had changed the racquet at 3:3, she got two forehand winners one after the other – and a little later the 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, she could also rely on her impact strength. Kenin’s three break chances in this phase were fought off by the Fed Cup player, who 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. Speaking of Kerber. Görges highlighted the influence of the two-time Grand Slam winner on her development:”I benefited from what Angie has achieved,”she said about Kerber.