Donna Vekic had a tough task ahead of her if she were to make her first quarter finals of a Grand Slam. Having never beaten Julia Goerges on three previous occasions she managed to put their history to bed by beating the German 6-7(5), 7-5, 6-3 to enter the last-eight.
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It was a slow start for Vekic as Goerges broke her serve in her very first service game to go 2-0 up.
Vekic had to play catch-up to Goerges from that start until the seventh game when she got the break back to go back on serve at 3-4. Both players then held their respective serves forcing the set into a tie-break.
A wonderful backhand winner down the line on the return gave Goerges a set-point she converted to go 1-0 up.
Goerges served well in the first set with seven aces in the first set, but also made 16 unforced errors to Vekic’s seven. She also got 22 winners in the set to Vekic’s five.
The second set started similar to the first, with Goerges breaking Vekic to take a 1-0 lead. The break of serve seemed to have deflated Vekic, with her body language dropping off and the match looked to be Goerges’ for the taking but she kept missing easy shots to increase her unforced errors.
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Despite not serving too well, Vekic managed to hold on to her service games and when it came down to Goerges’ turn to serve it out, she choked. Three double faults in the game allowed Vekic an opening, which she took to go back on serve at 5-5.
The break back gave Vekic her second wind, while Julia looked rattled. Vekic got three set points as Goerges went 0-40 down on her serve and Vekic took the set by winning her third set point.
The third set saw the quality of tennis pick up again. Both players held their serves until the eighth game. Goerges went 0-40 down to give Vekic three break points and eventually getting broken off a double fault again.
While Goerges had her chances, she failed to convert them and she completed the win in the ninth game of the set.
Vekic will now face Belinda Bencic in the quarter-finals, after the Swiss 13th seed stunned the defending champion and the top seeded Naomi Osaka in her fourth round match.
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