RRI Sports Club

Tennis

Florin Orban, 31.08.2022, 13:45

Three tennis players from Romania have qualified for the second round of the US Open, the last Grand Slam tournament of the year. The first was Gabriela Ruse, who, on Monday, defeated the Australian of Russian origin Daria Saville, formerly Gavrilova, in the first round. The 24-year-old Romanian, ranked 101 in the WTA classification, obtained the first main-draw win of her career at Flushing Meadows. The Romanian needed two hours and 15 minutes of play, but eventually she defeated 3-6, 6-2, 6-4 a player better placed in the world ranking, i.e. on 58th position. Its worth mentioning that Ruse had suffered surgery on her left wrist at the beginning of the month, and she had played her last game at a tournament in July.

Sorana Cîrstea (WTA 37) also moves on. On Tuesday, she defeated Germany’s Laura Siegemund, world number 182, 6-4, 6-4. The Romanian player had a more defensive performance only at the beginning of the second set, when Siegemund managed a break and took the lead with the score 4-2, but Cîrstea came back and took control, defeating the German 6-4, after winning four games in a row.

Irina Begu, world no. 42, needed three sets to defeat the Belgian Elise Mertens (WTA 33). The Romanian player lost the first set 3 to 6. She then came back and won 6-2 in the second set, winning the decisive set with the same score.

Another two tennis players from Romania were eliminated, on Monday, in the first round. Simona Halep, the tournaments 7th seed, who had won the WTA 1,000 title in Toronto, was defeated, after one hour and 40 minutes, by a 20-year-old player ranked 124th in the world classification, the Ukrainian Daria Snigur, who won in three sets, 6-2, 0-6, 6-4. Jaqueline Cristian, world no. 77, also lost to the tournaments 2nd seed, Anett Kontaveit, from Estonia. (LS)