Julia Görges unexpectedly dropped out of the Australian Open’s second round against Alize Cornet – a series of 15 consecutive victories comes to an end.
It was a day when, at the other end of the world, miraculous things happened again in the women’s tennis circus. Caroline Wozniacki, Denmark’s runner-up in the world rankings, Caroline Wozniacki was trailing 1:5 and 15:40 in her match against the blatant outsider Jana Fett (Croatia/WTA 119) in the third set, before she enriched the Australian Open with one of the most amazing unleashing numbers in recent history and won 2:6,6:3 and 7:5.
Then there was also the 15-year-old Ukrainian Marta Kostjuk, one of the great promises for the future, who in the here and now of the Grand Slam activities Down Under already beat the Polish Olivia Rogowska 6:3 and 7:5 in the third Melbourne round with considerable coolness and sophistication – as the youngest player since a certain Martina Hingis in 1996. Kostjuk, incidentally, is the number 521 of the female tennis pecking order.
Julia Görges would also have had a small miracle on this 17th birthday. It is a miracle to overcome their inexplicable instability and nervousness. She had been unbeaten for 15 games and two and a half months, had won three consecutive tournaments in Moscow, Zhuhai (B World Championship) and Auckland, and had even become one of the favourites for the Free Dance of the Grand Slam Queen in Melbourne. But what Görges showed against the uncomfortable French woman Alize Cornet in the Margaret Court Arena was not a confirmation of her impressive upswing and the new consistency.
Instead, it was yesterday’s tennis, a relapse into old, weaker, restless times. 4:6 and 3:6 she finally lost in 91 rather torturous second round minutes, symptomatic of the Germans’ last forehand, which crunchingly ended up in the end.”I didn’t have enough money to win today. It was not enough overall,”said Görges frustrated.
Power with precision – that was something like the buzzword, the trademark of Görges’ impressive career filming. The Schleswig-Holsteiner, who now lives in Regensburg, held 12th place in the WTA charts, deserved it as an expression of her stability offensive and sense of well-being in the Görges team with coach Michael Geserer and physiotherapist Florian Zitzelsberger. At the beginning of the year, the 29-year-old had already experienced a dream start to the season in Auckland and, with the Pokalcoup, had shaken off the understandable worries as to whether the tennis high from the 2017 season would continue.
Görges came to Melbourne with a tailwind, she also seemed to be called to a higher position on one of the biggest tennis stages – for the first time in her career, which has lasted for more than ten years. But the first striking resistance at this Australian Open, in the person of experienced match player Cornet, was already too much for the German number one. She had beaten Cornet five times in the past years, all over the world, whether in Bad Gastein, Wuhan or Stuttgart, but in this second round of the Grand Slam, Görges seemed strangely anxious, often tense, never really free in her play. Key scenes were decided by Cornet almost without exception, but not always on her own. The capricious French woman won the first set as a gift, because Görges served a big double error to 4:6.
It didn’t get much better for Görges, who probably felt the burden of winning the Grand Slam title for the first time. There were occasions for a break in the second movement to bring about a turnaround, but they passed unused. Because Görges lacked determination. And because Cornet defended her leadership with all his willpower and passion, simply showed more bite at the Big Points “These were simply too many mistakes with Julia. And the idea was too volatile,”stated TV expert Boris Becker. Since Mona Barthel also retired in three sets against Estin Annett Kontaktveit, all hopes of Angelique Kerber and Andrea Petkovic are now resting and remaining.