Julia Goerges Does It Again, Beats Caroline Wozniacki At 2011 Mutua Madrid Open; Bethanie Mattek-Sands Knocks Out Francesca Schiavone

Julia Goerges

The upsets keep on coming at the 2011 Mutua Madrid Open. Maria Sharapova. Gone. Samantha Stosur. Gone. Vera Zvonareva. Gone. But the biggest upset of all happened on Thursday, as Julia Goerges dismissed world #1 Caroline Wozniacki 6-4 1-6 6-3. Some might say that is not a big upset given that Goerges beat Wozniacki in Stuttgart a few weeks ago. But when a player who had previously never won a Premier event before Stuttgart, as Goerges had not, beats a player of Wozniacki’s stature, it can be seen as a fluke. Doing it again is what raises eyebrows.

It was a match of streaks, as Caroline broke Julia early to go up 3-0. But Julia rattled off 6 of the next 7 games to take the set, hitting looping shots mixed in with power shots, really doing a great job of mixing speeds and keeping Caroline out of rhythm. Caroline is a champion, though and ran off the first 5 games of the second set to win it easily 6-1. At this point, it looked as if the clock had struck midnight on Julia’s Cinderella run. Instead, Julia regrouped to keep the final set tight until a burst of 14 of 16 points won at the end of the match gave Julia her second upset of Caroline in less than a month.

Bethanie Mattek-Sands

Also continuing the string of upsets was Bethanie Mattek-Sands, who achieved her first ever career win over a top 5 ranked player, beating defending Roland Garros (French Open) champion Francesca Schiavone 7-6 (5) 6-3. It was a pretty even match, although Bethanie had many chances to break Francesca but could only come through once. Luckily, for her, that was all she needed as Bethanie never surrendered a break.

“Francesca is probably one of the best competitors on the tour. We played her in doubles yesterday and she played a great match again. Today, every point from the beginning, it was on. She’s a great champion, obviously won the French Open last year, and this victory gives me a lot of confidence. I’m really happy with my play on clay right now. I feel like a true dirtballer.”-Bethanie Mattek-Sands