Julia Görges was eliminated in the last sixteen of the WTA tournament in Beijing. The world ranking tenth was clearly defeated by US Open winner Naomi Osaka with 1:6, 2:6.
After 66 minutes the eighth seeded Osaka turned her first match point on the Centre Court of the Tennis National Stadium. This means that Görges can no longer reach the WTA final in Singapore (from 21 October) under his own steam.
In the duel with Osaka, the German number two quickly fell 5-0 behind before winning their first match. Previously, Görges coach Michael Geserer had reminded his protégé at on-court coaching to show “strength” and to play the New York Championesse on her “weaker” forehand.
But Görges had to struggle with himself on the fifth day of the tournament. The Wimbledon semi-finalist made many unnecessary mistakes and in the first set made only half of the points Osaka could win (16:31).
Symptomatically the second set ball of the Japanese woman, who is coached by the Munich Sascha Bajin: A backhand return from Görges sailed out to the side after exactly half an hour.
From the baseline she acted unusually insecure. What made it more difficult was that “Jule” also abandoned her parade. The “Ace Queen” had to serve a total of four times. When the first service came, Görges got the point in 59 percent of the cases, when the second service came, it was only 26 percent.
Also in set two, the Regensburg player was trailing 0:3 and could not use two break points. This has been punished. Görges seemed increasingly helpless, while Osaka, the darling of the audience, showed no weaknesses and hit hard. She scored 28 out of 30 if the first service was successful.
Due to the Görges exit, the 8.285 million dollar China Open can no longer reach a German quarter-final. Wimbledon winner Angelique Kerber will play against Shuai Zhang (China) on Thursday and would challenge Osaka if they win on Friday.