Julia Goerges made a winning start in Birmingham as she defeated the 19-year-old Ukrainian Dayana Yastremska in three sets 3-6, 6-4, 6-3.
Yastremska was the player that made the much better start. She was attacking each ball strongly from the return of serve, blasting through the court greatly off both wings and offering far more offence in each rally than her opponent in the first frame. There were ultimately too many things that were holding the inexperienced Ukrainian back later on in the match though as the number of double faults continued to cause her problems and she lost the plot considerably from a set and a break up. She was just the two games away from victory then lost all of the next four games to drop the set from out of the blue.
Julia Goerges Edges Past Yastremska
Goerges sometimes found herself on the receiving end of the firepower coming from the other side of the net. Often when the German plays on the much quicker surfaces she is the player that is dictating proceedings and getting her strong forehand into the point whenever she can, but those sort of points weren’t coming often for her in the first set and a half. Yastremska was doing an excellent job of really focusing in on the Goerges backhand wing and preventing her from hitting first ball forehands with the next shot after the serve and it was a big reason why the Ukrainian was winning. Goerges always looked focused even when things weren’t necessarily going her way though. She looked down and out but after taking the second set she finished the far superior, and although the service rhythm wasn’t quite where she would have liked it to be, she improved as the match went on.
Goerges now goes through to face Russia’s Evgeniya Rodina, who beat France’s Kristina Mladenovic in her first round match.
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