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Romanian tennis players Irina Begu and Sorana Cirstea qualified on Wednesday in Melbourne for the second round of the women's doubles' event of the Australian Open, after Raluca Olaru's achievement in the first part of the day.
The 10th seeded prevailed in a game of nerves, in which they turned 4 of the 17 break balls created, while the adversaries only took advantage of one of the 9 break opportunities.
The Romanians ensured a 22,500-Australian dollar cheque and 130 WTA points for themselves and are due to face off Australians Jessica Moore/Ellen Perez in the second round.
Last year Niculescu and Abigail Spears were defeated in Melbourne's first tour by pairing Lucic-Baroni/Petkovic, Begu also losing in the first doubles' round, alongside Lara Arruabarrena.
The Romanian-Brazilian pair Sorana Cirstea/Beatriz Haddad Maia also qualified for the second tour, after 6-2, 6-2 against Veronika Kudermetova (Russia)/Arina Sabalenka (Belarus), in only 53 minutes.
Cirstea/Haddad Maia pairing's next adversaries will be the winners of Alize Cornet (France)/Heather Watson (UK) - Alicja Rosolska (Poland)/Abigail Spears (USA), seeded 15th.
Still on Wednesday, Raluca Olaru and Ukrainian Olga Savchuk took the lead, 6-3, 6-3 over pair Kateryna Kozlova (Ukraine) / Yulia Putintseva (Kazakhstan), the adversaries in the second round being the Czechs Lucie Safarova/Barbora Strycova, seeded 4th.
AGERPRES .
