Hard-fought win for Romania's Cirstea in Italian Open 1st round

Hard-fought win for Romania's Cirstea in Italian Open 1st round.

Romanian tennis player Sorana Cirstea defeated American Katie Volynets, 2-6 6-3 6-4, on Wednesday evening in the first round of the Italian Open WTA 1,000 tournament in Rome, prize pool 3,572,618 euros, told Agerpres.

Fresh from winning the Catalonia Open WTA 125 women's singles title, Cirstea, 33, ranked 34, prevailed in two hours and 25 minutes.

Volynets, 21, ranked 102, led in the first set 2-0, but was tied 2-2, and dominated the rest of the set to win 6-2. Cirstea played much better in the second set, which she started with 3-0, a gap she kept until the end (6-3). The American started the third set better, with 2-0, but was tied, 2-2, and Cirstea made a break at 3-3 and went on to win 6-4.

For her performance so far, Cirstea won 12,652 euros and 35 WTA singles points, and in the second round she will face Latvian Jelena Ostapenko, 25, ranked 20. Ostapenko won both head-to-head meets with Sorana in 2017, in the second round at the US Open and in the quarter-finals in Beijing, each time 6-4 6-4.

Also in the first round on Wednesday, compatriot Ana Bogdan defeated Japanese Nao Hibino 7-5 6-0, and Gabriela Ruse beat Czech Linda Fruhvirtova 6-1 6-0.

Romanian Irina Begu, 31-st-seeded, progressed directly to the second round and will meet Chinese Xiyu Wang.

In women's doubles first round, Ruse and Ukrainian Marta Kostyuk will play Tereza Mihalikova (Slovakia)/Alycia Parks (USA), and Monica Niculescu and the Japanese Makoto Ninomiya will play Leylah Fernandez (Canada)/Taylor Townsend (USA).