Sorana Kirstya left the WTA 1000 tournament in Dubai in the second round, our player lost to Karolina Mukhova (112th place in the world ranking), score 6-4, 7-6(4).

Sorana KirsteaPhoto: ROB PRANGE / AFP / Profimedia

Sorana Kirstea lost to Karolina Muchova at the WTA in Dubai

Set I

Sorana was the first to break the tie in the match of the second round in Dubai: she won the serve, went up to 3-1, but in the following minutes she lost the advantage she had been working for (3-3).

The next important moment of the set became decisive: Sorana showed a bad serve at 4-4, Mukhova took the lead, and then closed the set with her serve (6-4).

In this set, Kirstya had her good chances, but, unfortunately, she failed to use them.

Set II

The second set started with a break by a player from the Czech Republic. After that, Carolina had a safe pitching range and the lead took shape (2-0).

An important factor in Tuesday’s match was variability: Mukhova went through weaker moments, Sorana “pressed” even more with her forehand, and our player managed to collect three games in a row (3-2).

In the seventh game, Sorana saved no less than four break points (at one point he was even 0-40), but, unfortunately, lost the initiative and eventually surrendered his serve.

The score reversal continued, and Kerstya, recovering the break, led with a score of 5-4 and 6-5. It came down to a tiebreaker where Carolina’s ideas were more precise and inspired.

In addition, Mukhova managed to get Kirstea out of rhythm at certain moments with slices and short ones, and the victory (6-4, 7-6(4)) took place after two hours and 19 minutes.

Know:

  • For the trip from Dubai, Sorana Kirstea received a prize of $17,930 and 60 WTA points.
  • This year Kirstea has 4 wins and 6 losses in WTA tournaments.
  • Romania has only one representative in women’s singles in Dubai: Ana Bohdan.

The Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships runs from February 19 to 25 on hard, is part of the “WTA 1000” category and has a total prize pool of $2,788,468. Simona Halep won the tournament in 2015 and 2020, and the last edition went to Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia.