Goerges start by Julia

Julia Goerges from Germany in action against Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia during the first day of the WTA Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championship at the Dubai Duty Free Stadium.

When Julia Goerges reached the final of the Dubai Tennis Championships in 2012, it marked the start of a beautiful journey. The German continued to impress with her solid baseline game, eventually breaking into the top 20 a year later.
It seemed she was well on her way to even bigger things in the game. But she suffered from a terrible loss of form and was even knocked out of the top 100.
Now, the 27-year-old German player is beginning to show the form that once gave her memorable wins against several big names in the game.
And luckily for the German fans at the Dubai Tennis Stadium on Monday, it was the good Julia Goerges that turned up as she exhibited her shot-making ability in her stunning win over two-time Grand Slam winner Svetlana Kuznetsova in the first round of the Dubai Tennis Championships.
Such was her dominance that Goerges needed only 27 minutes to win the first set (6-0) and allowed the Russian just one game in the second to take the match 6-0 6-1.
"It was a very solid performance but at the same time I was aggressive and didn't make that many mistakes," Goerges later told reporters in the post-match Press conference.
"Also I just didn't give her any chance to get into the match and get into her rhythm, because if she has time she creates good balls and deep balls, and that's what I tried to take away from her. That worked pretty well today."
Of course, it helps when you serve well especially against a player as accomplished as Kuznetsova. On Monday, Goerges fired six aces in a match that lasted only 55 minutes.
Her stinging forehands also put Kuznetsova in all sorts of trouble as the Russian found some of the deep balls impossible to return.
Remarkably, it was Goerges' second win over Keznetsova at the Dubai event.
"Well, I like Dubai. I have done a lot of pre-seasons here. The courts suit my game pretty well. This one is a bit slower than the outside courts. At night it's not flying that much.
"It really suits my game. It really forgives you if you don't hit it in the middle.
"So overall I can just say I'm very satisfied today. I am working hard to play as consistent as possible and it's very satisfying to see the performance like this today," said the world number 53.
Earlier, Goerges' compatriot Andrew Petkovic was in terrific form as well. The world number 23 beat Italian Camila Giorgi in straight sets (6-2 6-1) to move into the second round.
"I was very happy with the way I played today," she said after the match.
"I usually loathe playing her. I don't have the greatest head-to-head against her, and I just struggle with these unpredictable players.
"I have worked on a lot in the offseason and I have been playing really well in the past couple of months in practice. I just wasn't able to transfer it into the matches.
"I think today was one of the first matches where everything came together, and what I really feel like is I'm getting back to the level that I had in 2011."
The 24^th edition of the Dubai championship began with an upset win for unheralded American Madison Brengle over world number 31 Ekaterina Makarova (6-4 7-5).
On Tuesday, crowd favourite and former world number one Ana Ivanovic will begin her campaign against rising Australian star Daria Gavrilova, while another emerging player, Belinda Bencic of Switzerland, will try to outsmart 2008 French Open runner up Jelena Jankovic.
Results:
Singles First Round
Julia Goerges (Ger) beats Svetlana Kuznetsova (Rus) 6-0 6-1; Andrea Petkovic (Ger) beats Camila Giorgi (Ita) 6-2 6-1; Madison Brengle (USA) beats Ekaterina Makarova (Russia) 6-4 7-5; Carolina Garcia (Fra) beats Anna Schmiedlova (Rus) 6-4 6-1; Kristina Mladenovic (Fra) beats Lesia Tsurenko (Ukr) 6-2 7-6.
Final round of singles qualifying
Saisai Zheng (China) beats Varvara Lepchenko (USA) 7-5 6-1; Tsvetana Pironkova (Bulgaria) beats Anna-Lena Friedsam (Germany) 5-7 7-5 6-3; Jana Cepelova (Slovakia) beats Bethanie Mattek-Sands (USA) 6-4 1-6 6-3; Yaroslava Shvedova (Kazakhstan) beats Denisa Allertova (Czech Republic) 6-4 4-6 7-6
Doubles first round

1. / T. Pironkova (Bulgaria) 4-6 6-2 10-8.