By Erik Gudris

Photo Credit: Mark Howard

 

 

(April 12, 2012) As more Italian stars crashed out early, Germany's Julia Goerges narrowly avoided the same fate before rallying to reach the quarterfinals of the Barcelona Ladies Open.

With her fellow Italian Fed Cup teammates Francesca Schiavone and defending champion Roberta Vinci both losing earlier in the event, No. 5 seed Flavia Pennetta was hoping to avoid the same fate today. But though Pennetta rallied to take a second set tiebreak against Ukrainian qualifier Yuliya Beygelzimer, Pennetta was unable to come back all the way as Beygelzimer won 6-2, 6-7, 6-4.

No. 3 seed Dominika Cibulkova dropped the first set but rallied to defeat Klara Zakopalova 5-7, 6-4, 6-4.

No. 2 seed Julia Goerges was given all she could handle by the rising 18-year-old Spanish player Garbine Muguruza Blanco who reached the fourth round of Miami last month. Though Goerges took the first set, the heavy hitting of Muguruza allowed her to break Goerges to claim the second set.

After splitting the first two games in the final set, it was Goerges who broke serve first and after a lengthy battle in the next game, held her own serve to claim the advantage. A second break of serve for the German was all she needed to close out a 7-5, 5-7, 6-2 victory.

Goerges will now face No. 7 seed Sara Errani in the quarterfinals.