Germany’s Julia Goerges crushed double Grand Slam winner Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-0, 6-1 to advance to the second round of the Dubai Tennis Championships on Monday.
The 55 minute demolition was eight seed Kuznetsova’s heaviest defeat since suffering a similar scoreline in October last year in Wuhan, China.
The only two seeds playing in Monday’s first round fell at the first hurdle with sixth seed and last year’s finalist Karolina Pliskova upset by American Coco Vandeweghe, who won her first match of the season 7-6 (7/5), 6-1 over the Czech.
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Goerges repeated history over Kuznetsova after beating the Russian world No. 18 in the first round in Dubai four years ago on the opening day.
“I was very solid, but I had a few mistakes. I didn’t give her the chance to get into the match,” the world No. 54 said.
Fellow German Andrea Petkovic also got off to a winning start, breaking six times in a 6-2, 6-1 defeat of Camila Giorgi of Italy to end a two-match losing streak.
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World No. 28 Petkovic, who exited the Australian Open in the first round and then was beaten in the Fed Cup by Belinda Bencic of Switzerland, is working with a new coaching team and feels her tennis has turned a corner after she toyed with the idea of quitting the sport in December last year.
Petkovic could face new world No. 9 Bencic in the next round at the Aviation Club if the weekend finalist in St Petersburg, Russia, beat former world No. 1 Jelena Jankovic in the opening round yesterday.
World No. 40 Giorgi saved two match points in the final game as Petkovic closed out the victory in 63 minutes, with 15 unforced errors to the 33 of her opponent.
“I’m very happy with how I played, I’ve worked hard over the past few weeks to be ready here and I was able to translate good training onto the match court,” Petkovic said.
Petkovic had a close call after the end of last season as she pondered her future in the game.
“I was in New York and thought about just staying there, but in the end I took my plane to Germany and began to work on my game,” she said. “I’m happy I made the right decision to stay in tennis.”
Giorgi had won the first three matches between the pair, with Petkovic beating the Italian last season in Cincinnati, Ohio.
“I didn’t have the best head-to-head against her, but I’m finding the balance between consistency and going all out for your shots, coming in on the short ball — I think I did that quite well today,” Petkovic said.
Kristina Mladenovic beat Lesia Tsurenko 6-2, 7-6 (7/1), while Frenchwoman Caroline Garcia put out Anna Karolina Schmiedlova of Slovakia 6-4, 6-1. Madison Brengle of the US erased a 4-0 deficit in the second set to advance over Russia’s Ekaterina Makarova 6-4, 7-5.
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