Australian Open: Two partners went their separate ways - Brady on his way to the top 10, Görges retired
A German is also involved in the sensational success of Jennifer Brady at the Australian Open 2021: her trainer Michael Geseres.
by Jörg Allmeroth
last edit: Feb 19, 2021, 12:00 pm
For ten annoying minutes she staggered wildly between "heaven and hell", then Jennifer Brady (25) went to the ground after the fifth, finally transformed match point, exhausted and happy. And when the newly minted Australian Open finalist got up again in the Rod Laver Arena, after her 6: 4, 3: 6, 6: 4 victory over the Czech Karolina Muchova, she immediately looked over to the stands . To the man who orchestrated her rise to the top of the world in the last two years with gentle determination - to Michael Geserer (51), the German coach and consultant in all other life situations. "I'm infinitely grateful to him for everything he has done for me," said Brady, who now has to face the Herculean task against Japanese Naomi Osaka (6: 3, 6: 4 against Serena Williams) in the final. On their first big successful move in New York, at the US Open 2020, Brady and Osaka met in the semi-finals, Osaka won in three hard-fought sets
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Brady and Geserer are undoubtedly the team of the hour in the great tennis caravan, and not just since the final coup now at the other end of the world. “For many years I just played in front of me without a big plan,” says Brady, “with Michael, structure and order came into my work. He thinks and directs the whole thing. And I'll do what he says. ”And the American and the German trainer didn't do much wrong with this division of labor - with astonishing dynamism, Brady rushed out of the gray midfield of the tour business into the expanded world elite with amazing dynamism in the challenging Corona season 2020. In order to even become a regular competitor for all sorts of titles in the last few months, a secret favorite for Grand Slam honors. "It is nice to see how she exhausts her potential," says Geserer, who, together with the physiotherapist Daniel Pohl, forms the small, fine support team in Melbourne.
Brady: From quarantine to the final
Brady's recent success story is all the more remarkable as she had to go into tougher quarantine before the first major of the season and was trapped in her hotel room for 14 days. As the only player ever from the traveling circus, despite this handicap, she made it into the second week of the tournament, thanks to the pragmatism and imperturbability that Geserer had demanded: "The motto was: We can't change this situation, so we'll make the best of it," says Brady, "I was even able to relax a bit during this time."
The cross connections between Geserer, Brady, the beautiful town of Regensburg and a certain Julia Görges seem strange. Geserer was also the coach of Görges for some time and was partly responsible for a late renaissance of the German national player. Then Görges separated somewhat abruptly from Geserer, who only started touring again in 2019 - with Brady. The German-American duo spent a lot of practice time together in Regensburg, where Görges also has her new center of life.
Görges draws a line
In the Corona crisis, things developed dramatically for the two women: Görges lost more and more motivation in the course of the month-long lockdown, discovered new happiness in life away from the Center Courts and in the fall was already playing with thoughts of resignation. She didn't even go to the US Open because of the arduous corona regulations. But there, in the Big Apple, Brady's star began to shine brightly for the first time - the woman who had completed all her preparation in Regensburg. Brady defeated the former world number one Angelique Kerber in the round of 16, it was the first big exclamation mark. She had become “a completely different player” with Geserer, praised Brady at that time her instructor, who had once been on the Tingeltour himself and who later wrote the first headlines for Philipp Kohlschreiber as a coach. Görges, his second well-known business partner, took early retirement at the end of the season.
Geserer, an always calm, level-headed and clearly structured pedagogue, received an honorary award from the German Tennis Association for his coaching work in 2018, at that time his work for the Regensburg women's team, which he led from the regional league into the Bundesliga as the responsible manager - and there for two titles. At the end of 2020, alongside Poland's Piotr Sierzputowski (coach of French Open winner Iga Swiatek) and Belgian Wim Fissette (coach of Naomi Osaka), he was even named WTA Trainer of the Year 2020. “Choosing him as a coach was the best decision in my career so far,” says Brady of the last German in Melbourne. With him, Brady is now facing the biggest match of her life, the biggest victory and also the storm among the top ten in the world rankings. She is already number 13 of the tennis plenary after reaching the finals.
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