The crazy day of the German women: Julia Görges wins her first title after six and a half years and starts at the small Masters, Carina Witthöft regains her first tournament victory.
It was on the 24th. Julia Görges gave the new German Miss Miracle its first big triumph. It was the day when Görges sensationally defeated the then world number one Caroline Wozniacki in the Stuttgart Porsche Arena in the final, at the end of a fantastic tournament week at his home game in Swabia. The tennis world seemed to be wide open to Görges, the greatest success of her young career was also a day of high hopes.
What happened in the next few years in German women’s tennis could not have been predicted that night in Stuttgart. Görges (28) and Andrea Petkovic (29), once the national market leaders, never made it to the top of the world. Görges disappeared for a longer time rather in the middle of the tennis pecking order, Petkovic fought with perpetual injury bad luck, but also ever fluctuating performance level.
And then she suddenly overtook one of them, who had almost given up her sport because of her discontent with herself: Angelique Kerber, the inconspicuous Kielian, slowly but steadfastly moved forward. She settled in the elite area of the top ten and won her first tournament titles. And then experienced a fairy-tale year in 2016, with two Grand Slam victories and the jump to first place. It was a scenario that one could use on that 24th day. October 2011, the day of Gorges’ victory could have won a small betting fortune. If you’d made that audacious bet.
You have to know this strange prehistory to understand the latest caprioles. The astonishing turbulence on the last regular tennis day of the 2017 season, on 21. October. After all, Julia Görges was once again Germany’s number one, as the proud winner of the Moscow tournament (6:1,6:2 against Daria Kasatkina) she had indeed overtaken the crisis-ridden, weakening Kerber – 284 weeks after the former world number one had taken the national lead and had occupied it since then.
Görges, whose talents were once rated higher than those of all her generational colleagues, now moved back into the Top 20. And Kerber, who had been named “Player of the Season 2016” at the WTA finals in Singapore a year ago and had also reached the finals there once again, now fell out of the top 20 – a final low point in a 2017 series of games paved with disappointments and permanent setbacks.
Now other German players were in the limelight. Not only Görges, the experienced artist in the travelling circus, who only celebrated her next success six and a half years after the victory of Stuttgart. But also the 22-year-old Hamburg-based Carina Witthöft, who won the first title of her career in Luxembourg – against Olympic champion Monica Puig from Puerto Rico she finished a sovereign tournament week with a 6:3,7:5 triumph.
For Görges, the season will now go into a pleasing extra time, she will be starting from the 29th day. October at the small Masters (WTA Elite Trophy) in Zhuhai, China “This victory feels absolutely great. I have worked hard in recent years and never gave up,”said the visibly agitated Görges in Moscow.
Two years ago, Görges had moved her life and work focus to Regensburg in Bavaria and built up a new team with her friend, the physiotherapist Florian Zitzelsberger, and coach Michael Geserer. More than ever before, Görges showed great persistence in this season, untiringly fighting for her chances – even after three lost tournament finals in Washington, Mallorca and Bucharest. Madness, what she put down there,”said women’s tennis boss Barbara Rittner about her long-time Fed Cup player.
Görges is, by the way, also one of the best double players in the world. One year ago in Singapore, for example, the paths of two German tennis northern lights crossed in Singapore – Kerber played in the singles competition, while Görges competed in doubles with Czech Karolina Pliskova, but immediately lost the opening match. Now Görges alone is allowed to work overtime again, in Zhuhai. Many people don’t like this little world championship in the scene, but for the Germans it’s a welcome bonus, a gift that they have made for themselves with the strong final spurt:”The holiday in Dubai can wait a little longer,”says Görges.
Witthöft, 22 years old as Görges at the Stuttgart title coup at that time, had to fight her way through many disappointments and some injuries in her first years on tour. Often she was mocked as a trivial tennis star because she liked to present herself freely in the social media. But Witthöft is an extremely tough and methodical worker, apart from this Facebook and Instagram world.
In the years to come, it will certainly be able to move up the world rankings even further, especially if it brings more consistency to its risky game,”she has enormous potential,”says Rittner, the DTB’s head of women’s affairs. But what actually comes in the travelling circus, you never know. See Görges, see Kerber.
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