The top-seeded Julia Görges has lived up to her role as favourite at the WTA tournament in Luxembourg and is now in the round of 16.
After almost 1:14 hours Görges converted match point number one to 6:4, 6:3 against the young Slovak Viktoria Kuzmova.
In the previous week, the ninth-placed player in the world ranking from Bad Oldesloe had narrowly failed in the first round of Linz against her old friend Andrea Petkovic (Darmstadt).
In the round of sixteen, Görges (29) will meet a 20-year-old girl for the second time in a row at the international event on Wednesday, which is endowed with 250,000 euros: The Russian Anna Blinkova had eliminated Tatjana Maria (Bad Saulgau) in her first game.
Görges, who had been in the Luxembourg final in 2010, began highly concentrated. The Wimbledon semi-finalist made use of her first break point, then brought her service to zero and led 4-1, but Kuzmova was more courageous from now on. The number 58 of the WTA ranking took Görges in the seventh game for the first time the serve, when she passed the Fed Cup player with a forehand cross.
Then Kuzmova equalized to 4:4. In the decisive phase, the favourite was wide awake again, and at the second set point after 38 minutes, she profited from a backhand error of her opponent.
And Görges, who despite a very strong season can no longer qualify for the WTA finals in Singapore (from Sunday), did not let up. In the second run she set the course for victory early when she took over Kuzmova’s first service game.
Although the Slovakian once again managed a re-break, Görges left nothing burning. The second seeded Garbine Muguruza had prevailed 6:4, 6:4 against the Swiss Stefanie Vögele.