Tennis/Coronavirus: Romania's Cirstea defeats Konta, Svitolina, at Mutua Madrid Open Virtual Pro

Romanian tennis player Sorana Cirstea defeated British Johanna Konta and Ukrainian Elina Svitolina on Monday in her first matches in Group 2 of the Mutua Madrid Open Virtual Pro tournament.

Cirstea defeated Konta 3-0 in the first match, and in the second match she defeated Elina Svitolina 4-2 after saving three match balls.

Belarusian Azarenka is also part of the group.

After the cancellation of the 2020 edition of the hard court competition in the Spanish capital, sponsored by Ion Tiriac, the managers of the Mutua Madrid Open tournament decided to bet on an innovative and virtual online tournament that will pit the best players in the world against one another from their homes from 27 to 30 April in the Caja Mágica's Manolo Santana Stadium, which has been recreated in exquisite detail in the videogame Tennis World Tour (Nacon Gaming).

"The Mutua Madrid Open Virtual Pro is a charity event aimed at helping the tennis players most in need at this time, those that have no income to help them through these months of inactivity and those affected by Covid-19. To do so, the tournament will include a total purse of 300,000 euros in the two competitions (150,000 ATP and 150,000 WTA), from which the winners will be able to decide how much they donate to the tennis players currently suffering economically, and the Mutua Madrid Open Virtual Pro will donate a total of 50,000 euros to the Madrid Food Bank to help reduce the social impact of the Covid-19 pandemic," organisers say in a statement.

Other results on Monday:
MEN'S
Group 1
Rafael Nadal (Spain) beat Denis Shapovalov (Canada) 4-3 (3)
Andy Murray (Great Britain) beat Benoit Paire (France) 3-1

Group 2
Diego Schwartzman (Argentina) beat David Ferrer (Spain) 4-3 (4)
Diego Schwartzman (Argentina) beat John Isner (US) 3-1

Group 3
Stefanos Tsitsipas (Greece) beat Fabio Fognini (Italy) 3-0
Frances Tiafoe (USA) beat Fabio Fognini (Italy) 4-3 (4)

WOMEN'S
Group 1
Belinda Bencic (Switzerland) beat Carla Suarez Navarro (Spain) 3-1
Fiona Ferro (France) beat Karolina Pliskova (Czech Republic) 3-0