Romanian Sorana Cirstea ousted powerful fourth seed Elena Rybakina from the US Open tennis tournament with an exciting victory of 6-3, 6-7, 6-4 late last night, reaching the fourth round at Flushing Meadows for the first time in her career. Rybakina entered the match as the more active player after her opponent in the second round, Australian Ajla Tomljanovic, withdrew, but the Indian Wells and Rome champion, who had a bandage on her right shoulder, started slowly.
Cirstea broke the former Wimbledon champion's serve in the fourth game of the first set and continued to gather points from the center of the court while taking an early lead in the match. The 33-year-old player, who had lost her two previous matches against Kazakhstan's Rybakina, born in Moscow, rallied at the start of the second set but immediately lost her serve as her opponent regained strength with some powerful groundstrokes.
Rybakina, the Australian Open runner-up, failed to capitalize on two match points with the score at 6-5 and squandered two more chances to equalize in the tiebreak, but she secured the win with a successful shot across the court, delighting the Louis Armstrong Stadium crowd.
However, Cirstea regrouped to dominate the final set, racing to a 4-1 lead before fending off Rybakina's late comeback attempt and sealing the match with a crucial late break after her opponent made a double fault.
Cirstea said, "This is the best crowd I have ever played in front of. Thank you for your support. It’s 12 a.m. so thank you for being here and creating this amazing atmosphere. I'm so happy to win. I lost to her twice, and she’s a good player and the world number four. I knew it was going to be a tough battle. I'm very happy. It’s a great moment for me."
In the next round, Cirstea will face Swiss player Belinda Bencic, the 15th seed, but the Romanian stated that she is not looking too far ahead. She added, "It's one match at a time. At this stage of the tournament, everyone is playing great, and I'm happy that the hard work is paying off."
