PETE ZIEBRON in CINCINNATI
Russian born Aleksandra Krunic of Serbia defeats Sorana Cirstea of Romania in Cincinnati. Pete Ziebron Images
Among the several intriguing matches on Saturday's Order of Play at the Western & Southern Open, the fourth match on Court 3 had the most appeal. This appeared to be an even contest and it would certainly end up in that regard as Serbia's Alexsandra Krunic would win just two more points against Sorana Cirstea of Romania in their first round qualification match.
At exactly 4:00 PM, Eastern Standard Time, Cirstea and Krunic appeared on court for warmups and Cirstea, the #6 seed, struck the first ball eight minutes after she took the court. Ironically, both Cirstea and Krunic managed to win just one point on serve as the players traded breaks to begin the match.
The third game would be the only game of the opening set that would get to deuce and the Romanian would stave off yet another challenge from Krunic to hold serve to lead 2-1. The server routinely held in each of the next three games before the same pattern emerged with how the match started, namely Krunic broke again in the seventh game but failed to consolidate the break in game eight, squaring the match at 4-4. Next, both players held routinely setting up a tiebreaker in the opening set.
To summarize the opening set, two breaks of serve, followed by four holds, two breaks of serve, followed by four holds.
The Serb would win the opening point of the tiebreaker before Cirstea took the next seven consecutive points to claim the opening set 7-6(1).
Krunic corrected course out of the gate in the second set as she held to open the set and the broke Cirstea to take a 2-0 lead. However, two double faults in her next service game allowed Cirstea to get back on serve. Following two holds, Cirstea, serving at 2-3 would be broken, the first of three consecutive breaks as Krunic would serve for the set leading 5-3. It appeared that a fourth break was possible as Cirstea got to 30-30 on Krunic's serve, however the Serb would win the next two points to take the set and level the match at a set apiece.
The players traded held service games to begin the final set and the Romanian would lead 3-1 as Krunic lost the last three points of her second service game of the set. Once again, Cirstea was unable to consolidate the break as now it was her turn to lose the last three points of her service game. Even though both players were striking the ball impeccably for most of the third set, it was Krunic that emerged as she would win the next three games to take a 5-3 lead. Cirstea would indeed hold, forcing Krunic to serve out the match.
After hitting her fifth double fault of the match at 30-30, Krunic won the last three points of the match to win 6-7(1) 6-3 6-4 in two hours and two minutes. The final tally of points was 97 for Krunic and 95 for Cirstea.
Next up for Aleksandra Krunic is the veteran Italian Francesca Schiavone, who also won her in three sets yesterday after coming back from an opening set tiebreaker where she won just one point. Schiavone did co on Center Court against American Nicole Gibbs. On Sunday, Krunic and Schiavone will play the second match on Grandstand.
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