Stuttgart Stunner

Julia Goerges: Beauty Uber Alles


Drop-dead Goerges: Her game is like her name

STUTTGART, Germany (April 24, 2010) – Julia Goerges is my new favorite female tennis player. The 22-year-old German native of Bad Oldesloe is also probably the most *Goergeous* woman currently bouncing around the WTA circuit - a statuesque 6-footer with slender long legs and - an anomaly in the women's game (outside of Serena Williams, Nicole Vaidosova, Caroline Wozniacki and perhaps handful of others) - a curvaceous female athlete actually built like a woman: that is to say, she has a rack! (Think about it: when's the last time you saw a top female tennis player that actually needed to wear a sports bra? I have a short list of candidates - see "The All England Rack-It Club" - but only a scant few are also top-heavy in the WTA rankings.) Facially, she reminds me of a cross between actresses Jill Hennessy and Sandra Bullock.

And on April 24th, this 32nd-ranked outsider "stunned" world No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki 7-6 (7-3), 6-3 in the Stuttgart WTA claycourt final to win her first title of the year in front of an ecstatic home crowd. I put "stunned" in quotes because, cute and loveable and media-friendly as the Dane darling is, I've always seen her as a pretender and not a true contender for the throne of women's tennis - she's a counterpuncher who's pretty good in all aspects of the game without any one go-to weapon in her arsenal that's a knockout punch. And she's still never won a Grand Slam event. (I rest my case.) Now, Julia Goerges has a similar all-around game, and is not exactly fleet of foot (she's carrying around that extra real estate uptown, after all), but at 6-feet tall, her kick-serve is a force to be reckoned with. Let's hope she carries on her current excellent form to even bigger accomplishments as the 2011 French Open (where Julia lost to Serena Williams in the second round last year) nears!