Sorana Cirstea outfoxes Erika Sema in the opening round – PTT Pattaya Open 2012
Romania’s Sorana Cirstea became the first seed to advance after crushing the Japanese blooming star, Erika Sema, in straight sets at the PTT Pattaya open 2012 on Monday. She clobbered a 6-2, 6-2 win against the 23-year-old Japanese to secure a place in the
second round at this WTA International event taking place from February 5th to February 12th.
The seventh seed showed her class in order to ease past Sema in 73-minutes. Facing each other for the first time, the Romanian comfortably booked a spot in the round of 16 at the Dusit Thani Hotel in Pattaya City, Thailand.
The 21-year-old dominated throughout the opening set, forcing the Japanese to hold her serve once. After earning two early breaks, Cirstea cruised to a 5-1 lead. Despite gifting away her serve in the seventh game, she capitalised on another break chance
in the end and clinched the opener with an assuring 6-2 victory.
The Romanian seed stormed into the following set and knocked out the opening three games successively before Sema could hold on. Apart from losing her concentration in the fifth game, Cirstea unleashed her skills again and bagged the last four games in a
row, subsequently registering 6-2 success again.
Summing up the Romanian performance, Cirstea dusted away three out of five breakpoints she encountered and committed fewer unforced errors. She clobbered a poor first serve share of 49 percent as opposed to the Japanese’s 77 percent but tremendously clinched
19 out of 29 points on it. The main thing which turned the tides towards Cirstea’s favour was the 16 break opportunities she found. The Romanian converted six to her advantage and ultimately clinched the match in straight sets.
Next up for Cirstea is the winner of the match between a local wild card entrant, Noppawan Lertcheewakarn, and the Japanese rising star, Misaki Doi.
In the only other first round match which took place that day, Anastasia Rodionova earned the limelight after crippling past France’s Iryna Bremond with a bagel. She kept entire serves after blocking all five breakpoints she came across. The Aussie clobbered
a better first serve share and cashed in four out of nine break chances to seal the deal with a 6-4, 6-0 score line.
“Won my 1st round match yesterday against Irina Bremond 64 60...no matches for me today,” The 29-year-old Aussie tweeted the next day.
She will face the conqueror of the match between the fourth seed, Maria Kirilenko, and Casey Dellacqua.
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