Romanian tennis player Sorana Cirstea beat Montenegro’s Danka Kovinic late on Tuesday evening and qualified to the third round of the Madrid Mutua Open, one of the most important tennis tournaments in the world.

Sorana Cirstea, who is determined to make a comeback to the women’s tennis elite after a shoulder injury that has kept her away from the court form more than a year, got a wild card from the tournament’s organizers to play at Madrid. She’s currently 127 in the WTA ranking. She beat Serbia’s Jelena Jankovic in the first round (6-4, 6-3) and Danka Kovinic in the second round (6-3, 7-5).

She thus joined the other three Romanians that had already qualified to the third round in Madrid: Patricia Tig, Irina Begu, and Simona Halep.

21-year old Patricia Tig, who’s currently 134th in the WTA ranking, went through qualifiers to get into the Madrid competition. She eliminated American Sloane Stephens in the second round (6-2, 6-3) and will play against Madison Keys for a place in the quarter finals.

Irina Begu (no. 34 WTA) also produced a big surprise as she eliminated the tournament’s third favorite, Spain’s Garbine Muguruza, after a difficult three-set match (5-7, 7-6, 6-3). She will play against American Christina Michal in the third round.

Romanian star Simona Halep, currently 7th in the WTA ranking, managed fight the pressure of several poor results in recent tournaments and made it to the third round of the Madrid Open after straight-set victories against Japan’s Misaki Doi (6-0, 6-3), and Italy’s Karin Knapp (6-1, 6-1). She will play against Swiss Timea Bacsinszky in the third round.

Romanian investor Ion Tiriac owns the Madrid Mutua Open, one of the best-ranked ATP and WTA tournaments.

editor@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: Rio Open on Facebook)