Julia Görges and Angelique Kerber have reached the second round at the French Open. Görges had to go over three sets against Dominika Cibulkova, Kerber won against Mona Barthel in two rounds and thus won her first match in Paris in three years.
Görges quickly found his way back into the match after a false start and took the first set, after that Cibulkova was the better one. In the decisive round, however, Görges did not give the Strasbourg winner of last week a chance: 6-4, 5-7, 6-0 after 2 hours and 3 minutes of play for the woman from Regensburg. Now it’s against Alison van Uytvanck from Belgium, who had already reached the quarter-finals of Roland Garros in 2015.
Only a few minutes earlier Angelique Kerber had won: The world’s former number 1 beat Mona Barthel 6-2, 6-3 after one hour – she had even led 5-0 in the second round. In round two she will meet Romanian Ana Bogdan or Marketa Vondrousova from the Czech Republic.
“The first few laps are always hard for me. After two years without victory here in Paris, this was an important success,” said Kerber immediately after the match at Eurosport: “It feels good. “I’m glad I can hopefully play a few more rounds here.” Görges was happy about the 17 aces that paved her way to the next round. “The serve was decisive today,” she said.
Thus Görges and Kerber are standing next to Andrea Petkovic in round two in Paris. Carina Witthöft, on the other hand, lost to Fiona Ferro of France at noon, marking her ninth kick-off failure in the eleventh tournament of the season.