Romania's Cirstea advances to Tashkent Open quarterfinals

Romanian tennis player Sorana Cirstea qualified on Wednesday for the quarterfinals of the WTA tournament in Tashkent (Uzbekistan) - Tashkent Open 2019, with total prizes worth 250,000 US dollars, after defeating Belgian Ysaline Bonaventure, with a score of 3-6, 6-3, 7-5. Cirstea (aged 29, WTA's 96th), 8th seed, managed to win in two hours and 14 minutes. Cirstea, who won the only WTA title of her career in Tashkent, back in 2008, secured a cheque worth 6,200 US dollars and 60 WTA points. In the quarterfinals, Cirstea will face off Montenegro's Danka Kovinic (aged 24, WTA's 120th), who eliminated, with a score of 7-5, 6-4, Russian Margarita Gasparyan, 2nd seed and currently the title holder. Cirstea has 2-1 in direct matches against Kovinic. The Romanian national defeated her in 2016, in Rio, in the quarterfinals, with a score of 6-1, 6-2 and in 2016 as well, in Madrid, in the second round, with a score of 6-3, 7-5. Kovinic has only one victory against the Romanian national, back in 2015, in the ITF tournament in Osprey (Florida, 50,000 US dollars), in the first round, 6-1 7-5. AGERPRES (RO - author: Mihai Tenea, editor: Teodor Ciobanu; EN - author: Rodica State, editor: Bogdan Gabaroi)