Romanian tennis player Irina Begu qualified for the second round of the WTA 1,000 tournament at Indian Wells (California), with total prizes of 8,963,700 dollars, on Wednesday, after defeating American Ann Li 7-5, 3-6, 6-1.
Begu (34 years old, 74th in the WTA) won after more than two hours of play (2 hours 04 minutes).
The Romanian now leads 2-1 in their head-to-head matches against Li (24 years old, 66th in the WTA). Li won 7-5, 7-5 in 2021, in the quarterfinals in Tenerife, while Begu won last year, in the quarterfinals in Palermo, 6-3, 6-4.
Irina Begu secured a check for 35,260 dollars and 35 WTA points, and in the second round, she will play against British Katie Boulter (28 years old, 38th in the WTA), the 25th seed, in a first-time encounter.
There are two other Romanians in the main draw, Jaqueline Cristian and Sorana Cirstea.
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