The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Goerges hoping to build off Wimbledon at Conn. Open
While Serena Williams was shocking the sports world with her run to the Wimbledon finals a couple of weeks ago, another player was making an impressive run of her own.
Julia Goerges, the German whose career had been largely sidetracked by injuries and other issues the prior few years, advanced to the semifinals, where she lost to Williams.
It was Goerges’s first trip to the semifinals of a Grand Slam, and it provided a major boost of confidence to a player who already felt she was playing some of the best tennis of her career.
“I wasn’t nervous on the court at all, it felt special,” Georges recalled. “It was for sure, something to remember. I’m looking forward to getting another chance to get there again and go further.”
First things first. Goerges, currently ranked No. 10 in the world, will pay a visit to New Haven next month for the Connecticut Open. It will be her third visit to the tournament but first as a singles player since 2013. She won in doubles with Lucie Hradecka in 2015.
“I’ve had a great experience in New Haven, it’s great preparation for the U.S. Open,” she said by conference call on Friday. “It’s always nice to see big crowds, as well. All the times I’ve been there, there have always been good memories.”
Georges was a Top 20 player in 2012, but injuries and a lack of confidence hurt her over the next few years. She ended 2013 and 2014 ranked No. 73 and 75, respectively, and finished 2016 ranked No. 54.
She began to turn things around last year, however, winning backto-back titles in Moscow and Zhuhai — her first wins since 2011 — and finished No. 14 in the world.
That upward climb continued this year, beating Carolina Wozniacki to win in Auckland at the
start of the season and culminating in her run to the semifinals at Wimbledon.
“I felt really prepared,” she said. “I didn’t have a good draw (at Wimbledon), but somehow came through all those matches. I really earned that spot in the semifinals. I was really glad I was able to keep it up in every match and I was in the semis somehow.”
It hasn’t been just a matter of overcoming physical issues for Goerges in recent years.
“The mental aspect became bigger and bigger over the last couple of years,” she said. “It was important to me to know I belong here. Now, with the Grand Slam semifinal, it showed me I really belonged there. I had played pretty consistently in other tournaments except the Grand Slams. Now, it’s like, ‘Julia, you’ve arrived at the Grand Slam and made it to the semis.’”
Interestingly, Goerges felt she had played much better earlier this season than she did at Wimbledon.
“I didn’t think I played that well at Wimbledon,” she noted. “In the quarterfinals, I was losing the first set, but I felt like I was the better player on that day. I sat down after the first set and realized, ‘OK, Julia, you need to keep going. If you have chances, you need to use them.’ How I turned around, it showed me how much I matured over the last one or two years.”
Goerges hopes to continue that maturation process Aug. 19-25 at the Connecticut Tennis Center in New Haven.
“It’s believing in yourself and what you’re capable of,” she said. “The feeling that if you have ‘40’ in front of your name or ‘10,’ it’s not quite different. It’s the mental aspect of how you approach things — that’s the biggest difference.”