Sorana Cirstea stoops to Anna Tatishvili in the second round – US Open 2012
An epic three-setter between the 73rd ranked Georgian star, Anna Tatishvili, and the 38th ranked Romanian beauty queen, Sorana Cirstea, was witnessed in the second round of the US Open in New York. The opening
set witnessed a tie-breaker triumph, 7-6(5), for the superior ranked competitor but the following two sets were completely hijacked by the 22-year-old Georgian who won them 6-1 and 6-2 respectively to register an upset on the eve of Wednesday.
Ironically, both players had played three matches against one another, including the Wednesday’s encounter. The head-to-head scores are lead by the 73rd ranked Georgian but the last time she won the match against Cirstea
was way back in 2007 during the Istanbul Cup. They have never played a two-setter encounter so that creates a bit of history amongst them.
Cirstea was the first to break serve in the second game of the match but couldn’t hang on to the lead for long, as her opponent fought back to win a breakpoint in the following game. Another trade of breakpoints towards the middle
of the opening set kept the scores together and the tie-breaker round witnessed the Romanian beauty inching ahead with a eye-startling winner.
A complete turnaround in the second set was seen when the Georgian star won two back-to-back breakpoints to post a resounding lead of 5-1. She held her serve in the seventh game of the set to enforce the final set into play. It
was a terrific comeback and no one expected such a resounding comeback, especially after a gruelling first set battle.
The 22-year-old Romanian started the final set with a serve hold and took a sigh of relief after losing five consecutive games in the previous set. Tatishvili continued to impress and held her serve to equalize the scores. A welcome
breakthrough for the Georgian helped her take an initiative in the final set and post a lead of 3-1. Cirstea couldn’t fight back immediately; in fact dug deep to save three breakpoints and deny her opponent from the second breakthrough of the set.
However, it was not long before the Romanian lost her way and allowed her opponent to book a date with Mandy Minella for the third round battle.
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