Sorana Cirstea overwhelms Bojana Jovanovski in opening round – Tashkent Open 2011
Unseeded in the tournament, Sorana Cirstea of Romania made a huge upset in the opening round of the Tashkent Open, as she outplayed the number two seed, Bojana Jovanovski of Serbia, on Monday afternoon.
Cirstea had no real difficulty in dumping the 56th ranked Serb in straight sets 6-3, 6-1, in just one hour and twelve minutes of play to qualify for the second round of the tournament. The contest was played on the hard
courts of the Tashkent Tennis Center, in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, with the world number 92 registering a comprehensive victory over the Jovanovski.
The unseeded Romanian finally avenged her defeat from Jovanovski, who outplayed her in straight sets, 6-4, 6-2, in the quarter-finals at Sydney earlier this year. Cirstea registered her 26th victory of the running WTA
(Women’s Tennis Association) to lead the all time-head-to-head series against Jovanovski by 2-1 on Monday.
The contest was a totally one-sided affair, with the Romanian dominating every minute. Cirstea exhibited her amazing herd-court tennis skills to outplay the second seed in straight sets and cleared the opening round of the $220,000
tournament. She played aggressive tennis all the way and gave absolutely no chance to her opponent to make her way back in the game.
Jovanovski served brilliantly with 74 per cent precision and secured 27 out of 52 first serve points in the match but registered just one break point in the whole matchup to finish on the losing side in the end. The Romanian’s
67 per cent serve earned her 22 out of 34 first serve points in the game but her phenomenal ability to convert the break points proved to be the critical success factor in the match. Cirstea converted five out of her 13 break opportunities in the contest and
successfully defended five break points from the second seed opponent to wrap up victory.
One serve break in the eighth game of the opener proved sufficient for the Romanian to take the opening set with the utmost ease at 6-3 and she carried on her momentum in the following as well to inch closer to victory. Jovanovski
dropped her serve in the opening game of the second set as well but nailed her first serve break of the day it the very next game to remain alive in the competition. Her hopes were crushed by three more break point conversions from Cirstea, who sealed out
victory at 6-1, getting through to the second round of the tournament.
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