Goerges survives scare before beating Bouchard
Julia Goerges saved a match point to defeat Eugenie Bouchard in a thrilling quarterfinal at the ASB Classic in Auckland yesterday.
Goerges won 3-6 6-3 7-6 in just under two and a half hours, with the match reaching a dramatic climax, as Goerges won the tiebreak 8-6.
Bouchard had a match point when Goerges served at 5-6 in the third set, but couldn’t nail it and it was a moment that will long be in the thoughts of the Canadian.
Bouchard may have won her previous two matches at the Classic, but had been scrappy in both of them, with her coach criticising her attitude.
But there could be no such complaints about her performance this time.
Yes, she still made too many errors, but her play was at a level not seen previously this week.
Goerges, who struggled with the wind, got out of jail by saving a match point, but she found a way to come through in the end and remains the favourite to win this year’s title.
The two players met in the final of the Luxembourg WTA tournament in October, with Goerges winning and will play his first match today. He played Taro Daniel from Japan in qualifying last year and lost 6-1 6-2. At the time Daniel was ranked 98 in the world and is now at 77.
That was always going to be an extremely tough match, but Rai went on to have a big first year on the circuit, getting his ranking up from nothing to 694, playing on the that match 6-7 7-5 6-1. So a similar result, but this time it was more dramatic. Bouchard was forced to save two break points in the opening game of the match but she soon hit her stride.
The Canadian came out with plenty of purpose and mixed her game up well.
She showed great athleticism to reach a drop shot and secure a break for a 3-1 lead before confidently serving out the set in 45 minutes.
That was the first set Goerges had dropped at the tournament and her performance was marred by several uncharacteristic unforced errors.
The German was much better in the second set, getting an early break which she didn’t relinquish.
Goerges should have taken the momentum into the deciding set, but fell behind 3-0.
However, the defending Classic champion got it back to 3-3 and naturally the intensity on court increased. Bouchard made two unforced errors at 4-4, to give Goerges a break point, however she survived that scare.
Bouchard then had a match point with Goerges serving at 5-6, but the German survived it, putting a second serve out wide then hitting a winner into an empty court. it,’’ Rai said.
‘‘I know how it went down last year and I got the hang of it, so now I know what I can change and my coaches and myself can sort out what I need to do differently.
‘‘I think I’ve grown up a lot in the last year, that was a really big wake up call for me. When you come from New Zealand and you think you’re doing so well even
Eventually the set went to a tiebreak and at the first change of ends, the score was 3-3.
But Goerges then got a mini break and had two serves up at 5-4, Bouchard went too wide with a high backhand on the first, but Goerges then mishit the ball on match point.
Goerges snatched at a return on her second match point. But a third came her way soon after and she hit the winner putting away a volley at full stretch.
Earlier, Viktoria Kuzmova was the first player through to the semifinals after overcoming Amanda Anisimova in a battle of the young guns.
The wind wreaked havoc for both players but Kuzmova held her nerve in a back-and-forth final set to advance 6-3 2-6 6-4.
The 20-year-old Slovak will play Goerges today for a place in tomorrow’s final.
‘‘It was really tough because the wind was [swirling] so you never knew what to expect,’’ Kuzmova said.
‘‘You could not throw the ball and serve as you would want and also the sun on one side today was really tough because I couldn’t see anything.
‘‘But we did what we could in those conditions and it was a really good match.’’
While Rai was ranked inside the top 700 at Christmas, that disappeared the following week and Rubin Statham is now the only New Zealand men’s player with an ATP ranking, at 373.
That’s because the sport’s governing bodies have changed the system, so that there are two tiers of ranking, the ATP level and the new Transition Tour level.