Romanian tennis player Sorana Cirstea won an important match on Thursday, October 5, at the China Open tournament in Beijing.

She defeated Czech No.4 seed Karolina Pliskova 6-1, 7-5 in the third round, this being her first victory against a Top 5 player in over four years.

"My coach told me that I was down 5-2, 40-0 in the second set, and I didn’t even realize it," Cirstea said after the game, reports Wtatennis.com. "I was just playing point by point, I was trying not to focus on the score. I was just trying to play the right ball at the right time."

The Thursday win will also bring Sorana Cirstea back in the top 40 WTA of the best women’s tennis players in the world after three years. She is to go up to 38th, from the current 44th place. The 27-year old Romanian, who reached number 21 WTA in August 2013, was out of the tennis elite for about a year due to a shoulder injury.

In the quarterfinals, the Romanian will play her current doubles partner, No.9 seed Jelena Ostapenko, who beat Cirstea in their only meeting, in the second round of this year's US Open.

Simona Halep also managed a great victory at China Open on Wednesday, October 4, as she finally defeated Russian Maria Sharapova 6-2, 6-2. In the quarterfinals, Halep will meet another Russian player, Daria Kasatkina.

This year’s edition of China Open will end on October 8. The tournament has total prize money of over USD 6.3 million.

Irina Marica, irina.marica@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: China Open on Facebook)