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Romanian tennis player Sorana Cirstea won a dramatic victory over Czech Marketa Vondrousova, 7-5, 3-6, 6-4, on Tuesday, in the first round of the WTA 500 tournament in St. Petersburg, with a total prize pool of 768,680 dollars.
Cirstea (31 years old, the 31st in the WTA) won against her valuable opponent (22 years old, the 38th in the WTA) in two hours and 26 minutes.
The only previous match between the two took place in 2021, at the Australian Open, when Vondrousova won 6-2, 6-4 in the third round.
Cirstea secured a cheque for 9,500 dollars and 55 WTA points, and in the next round she will face Estonian Anett Kontaveit, the second seed, who defeated Swiss Jil Teichmann 6-3, 1-6, 6-3.
Kontaveit won all five direct matches with Cirstea, who took only one set, Agerpres.ro informs.
Also on Tuesday, Jaqueline Cristian defeated American Bernarda Pera 7-6 (3), 6-4, in another first round match.
Irina Begu will also play in the first round on Tuesday, against the Chinese Shuai Zhang.
