It was one of the clashes of the day: Roberta Vinci, the 6th seed of the tournament, took on the wild card, Julia Goerges, in the second round of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix.
There was a fight, but the more experienced player ended up with a win after 1 hour and 18 minutes.
Vinci starts off well and wins the opening set
Roberta Vinci started off the match with her serve and held to love. Goerges encountered some trouble straight from her opening service game and conceded an early break. Vinci played as much balls as possible in the backhand of her opponent, which really put the German back against the wall. Goerges literally had no solution against the backhand slices, the intelligence and the good serves of her opponent.
Vinci kept playing her tactic scheme and even had two games points to take a 5-0 lead but the German started to be more patient and relied on her powerful forehand to get one break back. After this break back, both players were very consistant and the match was not a one-sided affair anymore. In the end, Vinci was helped by her out-wide serves to get the first set, 6-3.
Vinci breaks in the opening game and goes on to win the match
After the resurgence of Goerges in the second part of the first set, she seemed to falter a bit at the very wrong moment in the opening game, which allowed Vinci to get an early break in the second set. In the next few games, the German lost her concentration and could hardly hit a ball inside the court. She even had to save two more break points at 2-0 but she got her act together to eventually hold.
Unlike Goerges, the Italian never lost her focus and kept playing in an incredibly clever way, hitting a few volleys and lob winners to trouble her opponent a bit more. At 5-3, being 0-30 down, Goerges was thought to be done but she reacted with some tremendous winners to hold. In the final game, Vinci stayed solid, hit an ace and made her opponent run from right to left to eventually win the match 6-3, 6-4 after 1 hour and 18 minutes
The match by the numbers
Even if Vinci won in straight sets, the match was quite well-balanced. Both players hit more winners than unforced errors: Goerges fired 26 winners to 16 for her opponent. However, Vinci hit less unforced errors: 12 to 20. Concerning the serve stats, both players hit 3 aces but Goerges hit the only double fault of the match. Both players also won 65% of the points behind their first serve but the big difference lies in the points won behind the second serve: 65% for Vinci and only 52% for the German.
Vinci reaches her first Stuttgart quarterfinal and will face a qualifier next
With her win today, the 6th seed reaches her first ever quarterfinal here in Stuttgart. She will face Laura Siegemund who crushed Simona Halep 6-1, 6-2, earlier today.