Julia Görges lost the opening singles match in the Fed Cup semi-final against the Czech Republic and forced Angelique Kerber into action (NOW in LIVETICKER and LIVE on DAZN). Germany’s number one lost to world ranking tenth Petra Kvitova 3-6, 2-6 and on Saturday afternoon Angelique Kerber and Karolina Pliskova will face each other in the second singles of the day in a new edition of the US Open final of 2016.
Julia Görges had a promising start into the match against Kvitova. The atmosphere in the Porsche Arena, which was sold out with 4500 spectators, was good right from the start. In addition to the home audience, hundreds of Czech fans made a lot of noise. However, the guests did not have much to celebrate at first. Görges started highly concentrated, used her second break point at 1:1 and led 3:1 shortly afterwards.
There were hardly any extra-long rallies at first, both players initially benefited from their serve. However, the service subsequently failed Görges several times, while Kvitova also became safer and safer from the baseline. The two-time Wimbledon winner took the break back with a forehand return winner. It was the turning point…
The spectators stood like a wall behind Auckland’s winner Görges, who recently made her first leap into the top ten. Boris Becker was also seated in the box next to the team box. The Head of Men’s Tennis at the DTB was feverish alongside his female counterpart Barbara Rittner, Head of Women’s Tennis.
But this was of little use to the world ranking elf at first. At 3-4, she lost her serve again when a backhand from her landed in the out. After 32 minutes, Kvitova, who had only returned to the tour last spring after a nasty knife rat attack in December 2016, won the first round with a service winner.
After the false start team boss Jens Gerlach talked into Görges during the change of sides. The 44-year-old, Rittner’s successor as captain, made his home debut in his native town. Gerlach had done a great job in his surprising 3-2 win in the quarter-final against hosts Belarus in Minsk in February. At that time, the two top players Kerber and Görges were missing.
Görges went into the second set with a 1-0 lead, but then the 29-year-old had to relinquish her service twice and could no longer find the red thread. Left-hander Kvitova, who had taken part in five of the ten Czech title winners, was no longer weak in the end and varied her game. With a forehand winning stroke, she used her first match point after exactly one hour. Görges left the Centre Court disappointingly. It was their fifth defeat in the sixth duel with Kvitova.