Goerges too accomplished for Koukalova

On day three on Margaret Court Arena, Germany's Julia Gorgeous (or Goerges depending on which spell check you use) had a meeting with Klara Koukalova from the Czech Republic the winner to receive a visa to the third round.

Julia had burst into the world's top twenty a few years back, but since has been unable to maintain that level and is currently a lowly 73 compared with Klara's 46. From the outset, rankings meant little though with Goerges in command, her forehand strong and reliable, serve convincing, and able to deal comfortably with the options chosen by Koukalova.

The early break and follow up hold (albeit after a struggle) gave Goerges 3-0 and enough of a buffer to prevent an improving Koukalova from making inroads for the remainder of set one.

The forehand as expected caused the most damage and was the saviour whenever Julia found herself in any semblance of difficulty, hitting clean winners down both lines in particular to great effect.  At 5-3 and serving for the set a few wobbles appeared, notably two double faults, each on set point, but eventually the better shot making won through 6-3.

Set two opened with a game lasting almost as long as the entire first set, complete with six deuces before Koukalova finally held serve.  Goerges continued painting the lines with her forehand and her efforts bore fruit in the third game where she broke serve to lead 2-1.

Koukalova sensed the urgency of the situation and broke back immediately and matched the German player with attractive ground strokes from her own collection for the rest of the set.

Serving for the first set double faults nearly cost Julia, and the serving jitters came again while serving to stay in the second set at 4-5.  This time the doubles were not offset by anything positive and Klara broke to win the set 6-4 and tie the match.

At the change of ends Julia turned to her bag of tricks, pulled out her mirror and had a long hard look at herself.  It worked wonders because the system returned to her game, the winners once more poured off her racquet which was no longer disinterested and poor Klara was about to be sent packing.

Five straight games, including three breaks of the crumbling Czech serve, featured the fully resurrected forehand in ultra damaging mode and, but for a minor blip when serving for the match at 5-0, Julia Goerges completed her assigned task in three sets 6-3 4-6 6-2.