Cirstea upsets Pliskova, advances to China Open last 8

Beijing Oct 5 (IANS) Sorana Cirstea on Thursday knocked out Karolina Pliskova 6-1 7-5 to advance to the quarter-finals of the China Open tennis tournament.

Cirstea got revenge for her defeat in the only previous match against former world no. 1 Pliskova in 2014 reports Efe news agency.

Pliskova broke the 27-year-old Romanian s serve early in the first set but Cirstea rallied back winning six games in a row to clinch the first set.

The Czech fourth seed won another break of serve early in the second set and built on that advantage to lead 5-2 before Cirstea mounted an impressive comeback winning five consecutive games to seal the win after 83 minutes.

Cirstea will next take on Latvia s Jelena Ostapenko the reigning French Open champion who qualified for the last eight after local favourite Shuai Peng retired while trailing 0-3.

--IANS
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