Amid all the pleasantries and banalities which fill the air during a grand slam tournament, Germany’s much-hyped Julia Goerges offered a refreshing burst of realism by stating she had no chance of winning the French Open.
The 17th seed, an outside bet for the title among some shrewd punters, beat world number one Caroline Wozniacki when triumphing in the Stuttgart tournament and making the last four in Madrid earlier this month. She battled back from 3-1 down in the second set to down Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic 2-6 7-5 6-2 on Wednesday to progress to the third round but she doubts her quest will last much longer on the Roland Garros clay. “For sure not me,” she told reporters when asked for a name of a potential winner on June 4. “I don’t think I’m a player who can win here. I haven’t reached past the third round here. I don’t count myself.”
Goerges was just as damning about her first set performance in the sunshine on court two. “I wasn’t really on the court in the first set,” she said. “It’s tough when you can’t play your best tennis and you think ‘what are you doing here?’”
The 22-year-old, dubbed “Gorgeous Goerges” by some members of the press, has also been hailed by success-starved German tennis fans as the new Steffi Graf after a dearth of talent since Graf won the last of her 22 grand slam titles here in 1999.
In typical style, Goerges is not interested in the comparisons. When a reporter asked who was her idol assuming she would say Graf, she replied with a dead straight face: “Martina Hingis.”
