Sorana Cirstea beats Alize Cornet to reach last four - Guangzhou Int’l Women's Open 2012
World number 30, Sorana Cirstea, squashed the 48th ranked French, Alize Cornet, in the quarter-final of the GRC Bank Guangzhou International Women's Open on Thursday. She outmuscled her opponent in straight sets 6-4,
6-3 and booked a spot in the last four of the tournament taking just an hour and 29 minutes.
Cirstea began the clash with a comfortable serve hold and pressurized her opponent in the following game that yielded a breakthrough for her. She was cruising along with a lead of 2-0. However, an onslaught form her rival had her
locked down but she did well to bounce back and hold serve to make it 3-0.
Cornet continued to press in each return game and didn’t make any more mistakes on her serve. She was rewarded in the seventh game of the match with a breakthrough that lowered the trail to 3-4 and a commanding serve hold equalized
the scores at 4-4.
The 22-year-old Romanian had to start from the scratch. She held her serve and trounced her rival in the following game to win a breakpoint and close down the opening set proceedings in her favour. It was an unfortunate ending
for the 22-year-old French because she looked a lot better after the comeback but the final game just kept drifting away from her and finally ended in favour of her rival.
Both players broke each other’s serve to start the second phase of the match in an unconventional manner. However, they settled abruptly in the situation and made it 3-3 courtesy serve holds. A turnaround for the Romanian star
was witnessed in the eighth game of the match when Cirstea grabbed a breakpoint to take the lead and didn’t falter on her serve to win the clash.
It was the third head-to-head triumph for the 30th ranked Romanian who had lost to Cornet in 2008 during the third round of the Family Circle Cup in 2009. Since then, she has been prolific with her form and didn’t look
behind. She is into the last four of the tournament and plays Laura Robson in the semi-final draw.
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