Nineteen year-old Sorana Cirstea made tennis history on Monday at Roland Garros by becoming the first woman from Romania to reach a Grand Slam quarterfinal in over a decade.
Cirstea, who is ranked No. 41 on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour, upset fifth seed Jelena Jankovic 3-6, 6-0, 9-7.
The last time a Romanian player reached the last eight at a major tournament was Irina Spirlea at the 1997 US Open.
After being crushed by Jankovic in the opening set, Cirstea stormed back to take the win in extra games. It was an error-strewn performance by both women as Jankovic posted forty-three unforced errors to Cirstea’s fifty-one. However, Cirstea managed to overcome those errors and a 48% first percentage by hitting forty-three winners, nearly twice as many as Jankovic’s twenty-three.
Cirstea has only won nine matches in 2009 with all of them coming on clay. Prior to Roland Garros, she reached the quarterfinals in Marbella and Estoril. She will next play the winner of today’s round of sixteen match between thirtieth seed Samantha Stosur and Virginie Razzano.
