Julia Goerges reached her first career Grand Slam semifinal at Wimbledon last week, capping a memorable 12 months that saw her achieve a career-high WTA ranking of No. 10 for the first time in February. The German's resurgence gained momentum on the American hard courts last summer with a runner-up finish at the Citi Open, a quarterfinal run at the Cincinnati Masters and a career-best fourth-round appearance at the US Open.
Ahead of this summer's hard-court swing, Goerges took part in a conference call with the media and discussed her Wimbledon run and semifinal match against Serena Williams, improvements in her game, expectations for the summer and life as a Top 10 player.
Q: After not making it past the first round in the last five years at Wimbledon, you really took off this year. What was the big difference for you?
Julia Goerges: It started last year. We took a former German player into our team who was very successful on grass courts. His name is David Prinosil. I practiced with him last year, and he came with us to all the grass-court tournaments, and he tried to change my mind a little bit for the grass courts. He explained to me how he was playing and how he would like to see me playing on grass courts.
I was successful last year with the final in Mallorca, and then I was already playing better at Wimbledon. I had two match points against [Ukrainian Lesia] Tsurenko [in the first round]. I couldn’t win them, but I felt already better on grass. When I started practicing this year on grass, the first days I was actually quite happy to be on grass, which I’ve never experienced before.
So I think this all came together and I found my game. I played more grass-court tournaments ahead of Wimbledon, so that was also nice and I had right away some tough matches with Ashleigh Barty, Maria Sakkari and obviously Petra [Kvitova]. For me, [Birmingham] was just a great tournament ahead of Wimbledon, so I felt really prepared.
I didn’t have a quite good draw. I played Monica Puig in the first round. I think I somehow came through all those matches, and I really earned that spot in the semifinals, so I was really glad that I could keep it up in every single match, and then I was in the semis somehow.
Q: What was that semifinal match like, playing Serena?
Julia Goerges: It actually was something very special – especially because it was my first Grand Slam semifinal – playing Serena, who was dominating Wimbledon for a long, long time and now came back from the baby and just right away went to the semis and to the finals after the win against me. I think it was something very, very special for me.
I wasn’t quite nervous actually on court, but I felt like I didn’t have the experience that she had on that court, and I think that was the main difference on that day. But it’s for sure something to remember. I’m looking forward to keep working hard to get there again and get another chance and hopefully get one further.
USOpen.org: You played Serena at both the French Open and Wimbledon, and she was able to win both. If you come up against her again this summer, what do you need to do to give yourself the best chance to beat her?
Julia Goerges: First of all, you need to learn from the two losses you’ve had before. I think I did much better at Wimbledon than at the French Open. I think the level playing against her from my side was much higher, and I think she also said it because I think it was overall a pretty good match. But I felt like I still had a lot to improve.
Obviously, it’s about being aggressive, as well, because she is one of the big hitters and big servers, as well.
For me, it’s always important to keep a good structure in my service games, to really go for it and really believe in my chances and my strengths. I think that’s the big key to really go up against her.
USOpen.org: After that Wimbledon run, would you say right now you are playing the best tennis of your career?
Julia Goerges: I didn’t think that I played that well at Wimbledon. I think I always improved in every single match. For me the [3-6, 7-5, 6-1 win] against KiKi Bertens in the quarterfinals was something where I felt that I matured a lot as a player in the last one or two years. I was losing the first set, and I still felt I was actually the better player on that day. But I still couldn’t win the first set, even though I had a lot of chances.
I sat down after the first set and really realized, “OK, Julia, you need to keep on going. You’ll still get your chances, and if they are there, you need to use them, and then you’ll have a good chance to turn the match around.”
I think this way, how I turned it around, showed me as a player how much I’ve matured over the last one or two years. I think that was something that I’ll really take away from Wimbledon.
But I wouldn’t say that I played my best tennis. I think at the end of last year, beginning of this year, I played better, quality-wise. But [at Wimbledon] I improved a lot in between the matches, in between the sets. I really realized what I’m doing and analyzed what I have to do to win a match, to turn things around. I think that’s the biggest difference from the beginning of the year.
USOpen.org: After one of your best results of your career at Wimbledon, what is your mindset going into the US Open Series – for you, the Toronto and Cincinnati Masters, the Connecticut Open and the US Open? Did that Wimbledon run change your expectations at all for the rest of this summer and this year?
Not quite, honestly, because I think I’m playing a pretty consistent year and I just want to try to keep on going. Actually, I’m leaving to Moscow tomorrow to play on clay for one week. That for me is always important, to go back to clay after the grass courts to really adjust to the hard courts afterwards because it’s a different moving and I think I always get a better rhythm if I go back on clay first and then to hard courts, rather than just grass courts and then hard courts.
For me, I just have great experiences from last year in the U.S., and the US Open Series especially, because I was playing pretty good last year there. First of all, if you play great events, you always love the cities, everything that is around. Everybody does a terrific job over there, and everything is well organized.
What I love the most in the U.S. tournaments is that you guys always have night sessions, and I think that’s pretty much the most exciting thing for me, if you can play a night session. People come and enjoy the event, enjoy the sport. For me, personally, I think it’s what makes it the most exciting part of the year.
USOpen.org: Your serve is one of the best on the WTA Tour right now; you’re right at the top of a lot of the statistical categories for 2018, like hold percentage, first-serve points won and aces. How have you developed that shot to get to that level, and how does having such a weapon make the rest of the game easy for you?
Julia Goerges: It’s always been a weapon of my game, but I think we did a great job of improving it a little bit more. I have the chance of going with a lot of different varieties of the serve, like different kick and different slice; I can go on every angle, and I think that makes it a little bit tougher for the returner to not know what I’m going to do.
I think for important moments, I have the chance to change things up, and people don’t know what’s coming. That’s something that I can rely on.
It’s always nice to get some free points in some important moments. Maybe you don’t feel well on some balls, but you can still hit an ace or service winner or just prepare a good point.
I think if you have a good structure there it really helps. If you have a good serve and good service games, you can put some more pressure at the return game to your opponents, and that makes it tougher for them.
Q: A year ago, you were ranked No. 40, and now you’re Top 10. What aspects about your daily life or career life on court has changed, and how much is similar? Does it feel that much different being a Top 10 player?
Julia Goerges: Actually not, because I’m doing the same things I’ve done last year and the year before, as well. I’ve always spoken to [coaches] Michael [Geserer] and Florian [Zitzelsberger] about it because they obviously showed me a lot of different things than what I was used to the years before we started working [in 2016].
For me, I think it’s more about understanding and believing in yourself, what you are capable of and what you can play on the court. It’s more about that I understand what I’m doing on the court and what my goals are. That’s the biggest difference. But the feeling of if you have 40 in front of your name or 10, it’s not quite different. It’s just the mental aspect and the way you approach these things that’s the biggest difference.
