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The Transylvania Open lost its two top seeds in quick succession on Tuesday. Top seed and home player, and perhaps the biggest local favourite of the Romanian tournament, Sorana Cirstea lost at the hands of Eva Lys. Second seed Alycia Parks made her way out after losing to another home hope, Elena-Gabriela Ruse.
German Lys needed an hour and 12 minutes to get through against the world no. 27. The world no. 133 won 61% of her first-serve points and 48% of her second-serve points. She also won 73% points on return on Cirstea’s second serve.
Seven break points were created on each player’s serve. Lys saved four of these seven break points while converting six that came up on Cirstea’s serve. Since her trip to the quarter-finals at Flushing Meadows, the turnaround has not been positive for Cirstea.
She’s played three tournaments since then, including this week, and has won only one match across all three. Her sole win came at the Ningbo Open, against Claire Liu.
Transylvania Open: Elena-Gabriela Ruse leads Romanians ahead
Meanwhile, Ruse took three sets and two hours and 17 minutes to get past Parks.
Ruse commanded a solid start but lost her way in the second set as her American rival started making her comeback. Parks’ win in the match seemed assured as she led the Romanian by two breaks in the third set before the latter made one last attempt at a fightback.
In the 10th game, on Parks’ serve, Ruse had three match points and she needed just one of these, to close it out. The third seed, Greet Minnen also exited in the first round in Cluj-Napoca. Ukraine’s Diana Snigur got past the Belgian 6-2, 6-3 in just 65 minutes.
The only seeded player who moved into the round-of-16 on Tuesday at the Transylvania Open was fifth seed Ana Bogdan. The Romanian clinched a 6-4, 6-1 win over Viktoriya Tomova after an hour and 25 minutes of play.
