Cirstea turns back the clock

Miami, March 30

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Unseeded Romanian Sorana Cirstea earned the biggest win of her career with a 6-4 6-4 victory over Australian Open champion and world No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka on Wednesday to reach the Miami Open semifinals.

Cirstea, who has yet to drop a set in Miami and is the last unseeded player in the draw, delivered a stunning performance while taking advantage of some untimely double faults to become only the third person to beat Sabalenka this year.

With the win, the 32-year-old Cirstea reached her second WTA 1000 semifinal nearly 10 years after reaching her first.

“I am a bit speechless,” said world No. 74 Cirstea. “I came out knowing that it was going to be a really tough match. Aryna hits so hard, so I knew I had to hold my ground and I am very, very happy with my performance today and it’s a bit unexpected to be honest.”

When serving for the match, Cirstea fell behind 0-30 and then held steady while saving two break points before finally sealing the win when Sabalenka sent a forehand return long.

Cirstea will face either Czech 15th seed Petra Kvitova or 18th-seeded Russian Ekaterina Alexandrova in the semis.

On the men’s side, a two-hour mid-match rain delay could not cool off sizzling Jannik Sinner, who crushed unseeded Finn Emil Ruusuvuori 6-3 6-1 in their one-sided quarterfinal.

The 10th-seeded Italian ripped a backhand return winner to capture the first set and rolled from there to improve to a career 5-0 against Ruusuvuori.

“We both played well today but I won the important points,” said Sinner. “It’s never easy when you are up and you get interrupted, but I came back and played well.”

Rain washed out Wednesday’s remaining matches, including a first meeting between defending champion Carlos Alcaraz and American Taylor Fritz. — Reuters