Wednesday at the Bett1 Aces was all about bad luck, just as the entire 2020 season so far — first it was announced that Julia Goerges won’t be able to play the second part of the event because of the ankle injury sustained in her first match this week, then the ladies’ final between Elina Svitolina and Petra Kvitova couldn’t take place because of persistent rain. Our photographer Jimmie48 is in Berlin, keeping us informed right from the site.
All day we were waiting for the weather to clear up, but it continued to rain into late afternoon. Interestingly, instead of rescheduling the women’s final for tomorrow, the tournament decided to stick to the original plan of Thursday being a day off and moved the what was originally supposed to be a grasscourt final to Friday, the start of the second part of the exhibition which is played on a hard court inside Tempelhof Airport hangar. So, Svitolina and Kvitova will face off on Friday, on a hard court.
The battle for the third place, between Anastasija Sevastova and Kiki Bertens, was supposed to be played on Wednesday after the final, but it has been completely canceled, meaning that it will not be played on Friday either.
Playing her opener at the Berlin exhibition on Monday, Julia Goerges rolled her ankle and subsequently retired from the match with Anastasija Sevastova leading 6-3 4-3. The injury has apparently not heeled and the German has withdrawn from the Bett1 Aces. Her replacement in the draw will be Germany’s highest-ranked junior player Alexandra Vecic, who reached the semifinals of junior girls’ singles competition at the 2020 Australian Open.
Vecic played her first match against a Top 100 opponent just a few weeks ago — it was against Laura Siegemund at the German Ladies Series in Stuttgart.
