Sorana Cirstea beats Sabine Lisicki to register the first upset – US Open 2012
World number 38, Sorana Cirstea, won an epic three-setter against the 23rd ranked German star, Sabine Lisicki, to register the first upset of the US Open Championship in New York. She lost the opening set 4-6 but bounced
back to win the following two sets 6-2, 6-2.
The age-fellows squared off for the fourth time in their careers and drastically the German player is yet to get off the mark in the head-to-head series. It was a welcome win for the Romanian beauty queen who has mostly been given
a tough draw in every tournament in the recent.
Cirstea dropped the opening serve game and went down to a 0-2 trail. However, she jumped back into the contest with a breakthrough in the fourth game that levelled the scores at 2-2. A swap of breakpoints kept the scores together
at 4-4.
It was expected that the tie-breaker round would be enforced with the way things were proceedings at the hard courts of New York. However, the slump in the play from the Romanian witnessed another breakthrough for the German. Lisicki
did well to make use of that lead; held her serve and won the opening set.
The second set witnessed a gruelling battle between the two athletes. There was no breakthrough seen in the first five games but a sudden turnaround in the proceedings courtesy three back-to-back winners from the 22-year-old Romanian
on her opponent’s serve completely changed the whole course of play.
Cirstea broke serve to take a lead of 4-2; held the next game and won another breakthrough to round off the second set proceedings and enforced the final set into play. It was terrific turnaround in the proceedings and the crowd
loved every bit of it.
In the final set, the momentum was sustained by the Romanian. She broke serve in the second game and retained the early lead until the scores were pushed to 5-2. Lisicki had to hold serve to keep the set alive but the pressure
had a better of her as she failed to do the basics right.
Sorana Cirstea meets Anna Tatishvili in the next round.
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