Sorana Cirstea defeats Alize Cornet in second round at Texas Tennis Open – Tennis News
World number 38, Sorana Cirstea of Romania, defeated the French contender, Alize Cornet and made it to the quarter-finals of the Texas Tennis Open on Tuesday. The former world number 23 defeated the French women in nearly one hour
and 27 minutes.
Cirstea served the opening set and maintained her serve to secure a 2-love lead in the opener. Cornet gradually picked momentum by the third game of the match but was unable to equalize the scores at any point in the set. A series
of break points were witnessed and the 22-year-old Romania was off to a flyer and nudged the first set at 6-1.
The French participant was unable to deliver any ace but double faulted four times in set number one. Adding to her disadvantage, she had a lower first serve percentage of 30, converting two of six first and four of 14 second serve
points. Similarly, the Romanian was unable to strike any ace against her rival and double faulted twice. Nonetheless, she bagged nine of 15 and eight of 15 second deliveries.
The eighth seeded Romanian followed a similar format in the second set and both players broke each other’s serve for a total of seven times. Cirstea rallied past her competitor and clenched the initial three games to lead 3-0.
The 22-year-old Frenchwomen equalized the scores to 3-all in the middle of the set. She proved to be an aggressive competitor and tried to upset Cirstea with every successive game. However, Cirstea nailed a crucial breakthrough towards the end and consolidated
7-5 score line to claim the match.
Former world numbers 11, Cornet, double faulted six times at the crunch moments in the set and was unable to strike any ace. She had an average 54 percent first serve, securing 13 of 22 first and 5 of 19 second delivery points.
Cirstea bombarded her rival with one ace in the entire set and double faulted twice. She had a moderately better first serve percentage of 57, clinching 11 of 21 and seven of 16 second points on it in the closing set.
The right handed Romanian will have to face a tough competition at the hands of second seeded Serbian, Jelena Jankovic, in the next round of the tournament.
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