Romanian tennis players Jaqueline Cristian and Irina Bara won their first matches on Wednesday at the ITF tournament in Altenkirchen (Germany), equipped with total prizes of 60,000 US dollars, told Agerpres.
Cristian (24 years old, WTA's 232) needed three sets to defeat German Joelle Lilly Sophie Steur (18 years old, WTA's 546), 0-6, 6-1, 6-1.
Jaqueline Cristian will play in the round of 16 against first seeded Tamara Zidansek (25 years old, WTA's 118), against whom she won the only direct match, 7-5, 4-6, 6-1, they had in the first round of the tournament in Tenerife, in 2021.
Bara (27 years old, WTA's 201) also had a difficult start in her match against Austrian Sinja Kraus (20 years old, WTA's 217), who led 3-1, at some point, but in the end the Romanian managed to win by 6-3, 6-2 , in one hour and 24 minutes of playing.
Irina's next opponent will be the Swiss Ylena In-Albon (23 years old, WTA's 133), seed no. 4.
In the doubles event, Jaqueline Cristian and Ekaterine Gorgodze (Georgia) qualified for the quarterfinals after scoring 7-6 (7/2), 4-6, 10-4 against three seeded Alena Fomina-Klotz (Russia)/Julia Lohoff (Germany).
In the quarterfinals, Cristian and Gorgodze will play against the pairs Magali Kempen (Belgium)/Xenia Knoll (Switzerland).