Dubai Julia Goerges is hoping to do her bit to help encourage a renaissance for women's tennis in Germany, which has struggled since the legendary Steffi Graf retired.
The German Fed Cup team of Goerges, Tatjana Malek, Andrea Petkovic, Anna-Lena Gronefeld and Sabine Lisicki lost to the Czech Republic 4-1 earlier this month, thereby pitting them against Australia in the World Cup Group play-offs in April.
After being at the top in men's and women's tennis, thanks to players of the past including Boris Becker and Graf, Germany has shown a dip in form in recent years.
And Goerges said after her first-round Dubai Duty Free Championship win over Svetlana Kuznetsova: "There's always kind of periods in every country I would say. It's always a new era and, yeah, this has come now in Germany. It's pretty nice to have it like that and one cannot complain about it.
"I've been reading it already many times today that four Germans are in the top 20 after I think 24 years now. Well, it's a great achievement I think. It's showing that we are doing the right things in Germany," she said.
"Some years ago they always said ‘we don't have any Steffi Grafs any more'. Steffi is a legend. We don't have to talk about this. We will never achieve what she has achieved, but we are just trying to get closer to it.
"I think we did a pretty good job in the last year and also this year already. So we get along pretty good, pretty well. In the Fed Cup we're always having fun. It's a nice week."
She added: "In the German media they don't talk that well about men's tennis right now, which I don't understand as we have a top-30 player in the men's."
