After beating Ayumi Morita of Japan in her First round match, Sorana Cirstea faced  Canadian Stephanie Dubois for a place in the third round.  The two never played each other befor this match; Stephanie, age 22 qualified for the first time in the second round of a Grand Slam, so she definitely had high hopes for this match.

After Sorana took the first set fairly easily 6-4, the match got tighter and Stephanie took an important early lead in the second. Sorana was able to equalise again but eventually lost the second set 5-7. In the decissive, each player broke twice to 4-4, Sorana broke again and finally served for the set and match to win 6-4.

Although she hit 10 aces during this match, Sorana had a poor first serve percentage (50%)…let’s hope she’ll bring it together for the next match against her friend and doubles partner, Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark. So far this year, Sorana had good success against Caroline, both in the French Open and LA. Let’s hope that history will repeat in New York .

Good Luck Sori!

Sorana lost today 6-3, 6-2  to Samantha Stosur in the semifinals of the Los Angeles Women’s Tennis Championships. Stosur – who ended Sorana’s great French Open run this year – dominated the match and Sorana, being slightly injured from yesterday’s quarter finals didn’t put up enough of a fight. In any case, it was a very good tournament for Sorana, being only her second hard-court tournament after the clay season.

Next week, Sorana will play in another Premier event, this time in Cincinati at the Western & Southern Financial Group Women’s Open. She is scheduled to play Meghann Schaughnessy in the first round.