Cirstea beats Bencic to achieve first Grand Slam quarters in 14 years

AFP

After 14 years of laborious work Sorana Cirstea bought her reward on Sunday, returning to the quarter-finals of a Grand Slam for the primary time since 2009 with a 6-3 6-3 upset of fifteenth seed Belinda Bencic on the US Open.

Making her 59th Grand Slam foremost draw look and fifteenth on the US Open, the 33-year-old Romanian’s solely different final eight look was on the 2009 French Open when she was nonetheless in her teenagers.

Now Cirstea turns into the oldest lady to achieve the quarter-finals at Flushing Meadows for the primary time.

“Unfortunately in tennis, not all the work you’ve put in is always rewarded,” mentioned Cirstea. “So it is good to work laborious and in addition get the reward.

“I do not assume there may be any magic factor or any key. I want I had one I can flip it on and off.

“Sooner or later if you put in the hard work, it comes.”

The upset is simply the newest in what has been a exceptional run for the Cirstea, who had already delivered one of many large Flushing Meadows shocks taking out fourth seed and 2022 Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina within the third spherical.

There had been indicators this yr that Cirstea was able to a deep run at Flushing Meadows after she reached the quarter-finals at Indian Wells, dropping to world primary Iga Swiatek, and following that end result by attending to the Miami semi-finals.

Next up for the Romanian is Czech tenth seed Karolina Muchova who superior with a 6-3 5-7 6-1 win over China’s Wang Xinyu.

It will mark the fourth time the 2 have clashed this yr, with Muchova successful in Dubai and Montreal and Cirstea popping out on high in Miami.

“We’ve had very tough matches, very tight battles every time we played against each other,” mentioned Cirstea. “This yr we performed 3 times so I believe we all know one another fairly properly.

“I’m really expecting a tough one. But again, I’m very happy and grateful to be here.”