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Both women wouldn’t give an inch in some hard fought early games, but Martinez Sanchez seized control moving from a 3-2 deficit to take out the set 6-4.

The 27-year-old world No. 26 then raced to a 2-0 lead in the second set, but Cirstea hit back to level it at 2-2. Martinez Sanchez still proved too good, though, winning four of the next five games to win the second set 6-3.

Romania began Hyundai Hopman Cup XXII with an upset win over Australia and Sorana Cirstea and Victor Hanescu are now excited at what could be in store this week in Perth.

Cirstea lost the first set to world No. 13 Samantha Stosur, but the 45th ranked 19-year-old toughed it out to win in three. She did beat Jelena Jankovic, Agnieska Radwanska, Elena Dementieva, Maria Sharapova and Nadia Petrova during 2009, so Stosur wasn’t the highest ranked player she’s beaten, but she was still delighted with her effort to come back and win.

A first round draw against a qualifier has both positive as negative aspects. Positive because you draw a, theoretically, weaker opponent. Negative because the qualifier got match rhytmh and confidence after three wins a row in qualifying rounds. It seems that the negative aspects were more powerful than the negative ones in the first round match of Sorana Cirstea at the Generali Ladies Linz tournament in Switzerland. She lost her fifth singles match in a row, this time against Julia Goerges from Germany with two times 6-3. When doubles match are being taken into account, it is already her eigth loss in a row.

Out on Court 2, Anna-Lena Groenefeld of Germany has eliminated 4th seed Sorana Cirstea of Romania. Sorana Cirstea of Romania has lost the first set against Germany’s Anna-Lena Groenefeld in a tiebreak. Serving at 6-5, the big-serving German double-faulted on set point and missed a drop shot to be broken back, but won the ensuing tiebreak 7-3. However Cirstea gained an early break in the second set and took it 6-3 to push the match into a decider. Cirstea could not keep her errors down, and it was the German, a former top-20 player, who advanced to the second round where she will face qualifier Chang Kai-Chen of Chinese Taipei after eliminating Sorana with 7-6 3-6 6-3.

Today the draw has been made available for the Hansol Korea Open which starts today in Seoul, South Korea. Sorana also entered in the doubles tournament together with Meghan Shaugnessy from the USA, with whom she has played doubles tournaments multiple times in the past. In the first round of the singles tournament Sorana will face Anna-Lena Groenefeld from Germany. Kutuzova or Chang or the two possible opponents for a second round match, while Sorana can meet Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the quarters. Sybille Bammer and Anabel Medina Garrigues are the most likely adversaries in a possible semi-final.