2011 Sony Ericsson Open WTA Part 18: Dominika Cibulkova and Alexandra Dulgheru
World Number 25 Dominika Cibulkova
Slovakian tennis player Dominika Cibulkova is currently ranked World Number 25. She has been part of the Women’s Tennis Association since 2004, having joined the professional circuit over six years ago. The right-handed player is 21 years old, and
has not yet won any career titles. Her highest WTA ranking is World Number 12.
Cibulkova made her debut on the hard courts of Miami in 2007, when she was ranked World Number 150. The player received entry into the main draw as a wildcard, but could not cash in on the opportunity and fell to Kazakhstan’s Yaroslava Shvedova in
the first round.
Her second appearance at the tournament was much more satisfactory. The player was ranked World Number 38 at the time, and began her campaign in the first round with a crushing defeat of Thailand’s Tamarine Tanasugarn. She faced twentieth seed Francesca
Schiavone in the next round, and defeated the Italian pro to reach the third round. Cibulkova was ousted by Elena Dementieva of Russia in this round.
This year, Cibulkova was seeded twenty-fifth at the 2011 Sony Ericsson Open. The player managed to defeat Swiss pro Timea Bacsinszky in her first match, before falling to eighth seed Victoria Azarenka in the third round of the Miami tournament.
World Number 28 Alexandra Dulgheru
Alexandra Dulgheru is the highest-ranked Romanian tennis player on the Women’s Tennis Association rankings these days, entering the charts as World Number 28. The 21-year-old pro has been part of the WTA Tour since 2005, and has won two WTA singles
titles over the last six years. Her highest ranking is World Number 27, a position which she reached in 2010.
Despite the fact that Dulgheru has been part of the professional tour since 2005, she has only taken part in the Sony Ericsson Open once before. Her first and only performance in the tournament was in 2010, when she was ranked World Number 49.
The Romanian pro took on compatriot Raluca Ioana Olaru in the first round of the tournament, scoring an easy victory over the player in straight sets. Her next opponent was Belarusian pro Victoria Azarenka, who was ranked World Number 7 at the time.
Azarenka was seeded fourth at the tournament, and easily fended off Dulgheru in the second round to win the match in straight sets.
This is Dulgheru’s first time as a seeded player at the Sony Ericsson Open. She is seeded twenty-sixth, and defeated Chanelle Scheepers in her first match of the event. The Romanian pro went on to defeat Johanna Larsson in the second round, and she
will now face Shuai Peng in their first on-court meeting.
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