Romanian tennis player Gabriela Ruse defeated Ukraine's Dayana Yastremska in two sets, 6-4, 7-5, on Sunday in Melbourne, in the first round of the Australian Open, the first Grand Slam tournament of the year.
Ruse (aged 28, WTA's 79th) prevailed after almost two hours of play (1 h 48 min), after leading 5-1 in the second set and being pegged back to 5-5, only closing out the match on her fifth match point, agerpres reports.
The Romanian committed 5 double faults, while Yastremska had 6, the Ukrainian recorded more outright winners (12-11), but also more unforced errors (33-31), however, in terms of total points, the difference was not large, 80-70 in favour of Ruse.
Gabriela Ruse now leads 4-0 in the head-to-head meetings with Dayana Yastremska (aged 25, WTA's 27th), the 26th seed, after victories in 2017, at Santa Margherita, in the first round, 6-7 (6/8), 6-3, 7-5, in 2021 in the semifinals in Hamburg, 2-6, 6-1, 6-4, and in 2023, in the final round of qualifying at the US Open, 7-6 (7/5), 6-3.
Ruse secured a cheque of 225,000 Australian dollars and 70 WTA points, and in the second round she will face off the winner of the event between Ukraine's Yuliia Starodubtseva (who came through qualifying) and Australia's Ajla Tomljanovic.
Two other Romanian players are on the women's singles main draw, namely Jaqueline Cristian (aged 27, WTA's 37th) is set to face Czech player Karolina Muchova (aged 29, WTA's 19th), the 19th seed, in the first round, while Sorana Cirstea (aged 35, WTA's 41st) will meet Germany's Eva Lys (aged 24, WTA's 39th).
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