LONDON — It’s been 87 years since two German women played in a Wimbledon final. Julia Goerges likes the sound of a repeat, though.
“It sounds crazy to maybe have the chance to share a German final in Wimbledon,” Goerges said after she and Angelique Kerber advanced to separate semifinals at the All England Club. “Well, it’s still one more match to go for both of us. It will be both very tough matches. But it’s great to see there is a chance.”
For Goerges, it couldn’t get much tougher. She’ll be facing Serena Williams, the seven-time champion who hasn’t lost a match at the All England Club since 2014 — though she missed last year’s tournament while pregnant. Kerber, a two-time Grand Slam champion who was runner-up at Wimbledon in 2016, will be playing former French Open winner Jelena Ostapenko on Thursday.
Goerges and Kerber have already accomplished something not seen at Wimbledon since 1931 by putting two Germans in the women’s semifinals. That year, Cilly Aussem and Hilde Krahwinkel went on to set up the only all-German women’s final in Grand Slam history. Just having two in the last four again is a boost to the country’s tennis, Goerges said.
“To really share this feeling with her (Kerber), with a nation, I think that’s something which is pretty special,” she said.
Of the last four women remaining, the 29-year-old Goerges is the only one who hasn’t won a major yet. In fact, this is her first career Grand Slam semifinal — even though many expected her to reach this stage much sooner. She won her first WTA title in 2010 and followed that up by winning the prestigious Stuttgart tournament the next year. But instead of establishing herself as a regular contender, her form and ranking plummeted over the next few years. That led to a radical overhaul of her coaching team and even a re-location from north to south Germany in an attempt to get back to her best.
It seems to have worked.
“I took the risk of changing everything,” she said. “But, yeah, it’s worth it. … I think now, the moment I’m living, it just shows me that I was right, I actually took a good decision.”
Goerges will be facing Williams in a Grand Slam for the second time in little over five weeks, having lost to the American in the third round of the French Open. Williams, though, insists that result isn’t an indicator of what will happen on Thursday.
“That was four or five weeks ago. That doesn’t matter,” Williams said. “This is a whole new match, it’s a new surface, it’s everything. We’re starting from zero.”
Williams, for one, isn’t surprised to see the German players doing well. And she wouldn’t mind renewing her rivalry with Kerber, whom she faced in two Grand Slam finals in 2016 — losing at the Australian Open before avenging that result at Wimbledon.
“We’ve had a lot of tough matches together,” Williams said. “Yeah, I have missed (our rivalry).”
