Sorana Cîrstea, qualification without emotions in the 2nd round at Roland Garros

Sorana Cîrstea, the 18th favorite, had to wait many hours to enter the field at her last Roland Garros, the seventeenth of her career. Three long matches were played on the Suzanne Lenglen arena, and the match between the Romanian and Ksenia Efremova, the beneficiary of a wild card, started after 21:00 local time.

In order to bring as many spectators as possible to the stands to support the one who became French in 2023, as she was born in Moscow, the organizers left free entry to this match.

Dressed in pink, Sorana seemed a little depressed in the first sequences of the game. He was dating a teenager whose game he didn't know, who was this year's Australian Open junior champion. Efremova broke even in the third game, being aggressive and taking advantage of Sorana Cîrstea's condition.

The Romanian slowly put all emotions aside, felt the ball coming from the other side of the net and had a break point immediately in the next game, one with six ties.

But he would do it in the sixth game, when it was already clear that Ksenia could no longer maintain the same pace of aggression. Sorana Cîrstea prevailed 6-3, after 44 minutes in which she also had to face some outbursts from the French public.

Sorana Cîrstea left him only one game in the second set

With many matches won on clay, including against world leader Aryna Sabalenka, Sorana Cîrstea unleashed even more of her game and aggression in the second part of the meeting, the young Frenchwoman's game disintegrating.

She put in line after line, clenching her fist between points and getting quieter and quieter, a sign that things were on the right track. The Romanian went 4-0, and the spectators in the stands could barely find an “Allez!” to shout.

Ksenia Efremova managed a game in the second set and Sorana Cîrstea prevailed 6-3, 6-1 in one hour and ten minutes and is in the second round for the tenth time at Roland Garros, her best performance being reaching the quarter-finals in 2009.

For a place in the third round, the Romanian will meet the winner of the match Petra Marcinko (20 years, 76 WTA) – Eva Lys (24 years, 81 WTA), a match that will take place on Monday.

FINAL » Sorana Cîrstea – Ksenia Efremova 6-3, 6-1

• Game, set, match Cirstea. Sorana finished the match without problems and qualified for the 2nd round.

• Game Cîrstea, 5-1: Sorana heads for victory, another game taken on her own serve.

• Game Cirstea, 4-0: Efremova finally gave in, Sorana's shots are coming in and she doesn't give her opponent time to breathe.

• Break Cirstea, 3-0: Sorana is having fun in Paris and is on her way to victory.

• Game Cirstea, 2-0: Sorana does her service without any problems and quickly distances herself.

• Break Cirstea, 1-0: Sorana also started the 2nd set perfectly.

Set 2 has started

• Game, set Cîrstea, 6-3: The player from Romania closed the 1st set in the style of a great champion. She gave Ksenia no more chances and recorded a fantastic comeback from 1-3 to 6-3.

• Game Cirstea, 5-3: Sorana warmed up harder, but now she is playing her usual game and heading for the first set win.

• Game Cirstea, 4-3: Consistent tennis from Sorana, who managed to win the game to zero on her own serve.

• Break Cirstea, 3-3: Sorana is back in the match. Efremova begins to give in, little by little.

• Game Cirstea, 2-3: Sorana's balls went in this time. She won the game without emotion, finishing with a superb shot that brought her close to Efremova.

• Game Efremova, 1-3: Long exchanges of balls, dizzying shots, but also mistakes. Each time, it was Sorana who set the tone. Experience spoke for itself, and the Russian-born kid couldn't handle the player from Romania. But he was very lucky. Cîrstea was not inspired with every ball and sent many times outside or into the net, looking for the decisive shot. Efremova escaped with a clean sheet and distanced herself to 3-1 after more than 10 minutes of play in this set.

• Break Efremova, 1-2: Sorana served modestly and we have the first break of the match. Cîrstea ended the game with a double fault.

• Game Efremova, 1-1: The athlete representing France quickly recovered without problems on her own serve

• Game Cirstea, 1-0: Sorana started the first round perfectly at Roland Garros.

• The game has started. Sorana Cîrstea served first.

• The two players went out to warm up on the arena Suzanne-Lenglen

If she passes the 2nd round, Sorana could beat Jasmine Paolini (30 years old, 13 WTA) in the 3rd round. The Italian is in a decline of form, the best result of the season being the eights of Indian Wells.

• Sorana Cîrstea is on the main draw at Roland Garros for the 17th time, where she played 33 matches, winning 17 of them. His best result is reaching the quarter-finals in 2009.