Romanian tennis player Irina Begu qualified for the second round of the €4,791,105 WTA 1,000 tournament in Rome on Thursday after defeating Slovak-born Spaniard Rebeka Masarova 5-7. 6-3, 6-4.
The match had been interrupted, on Wednesday evening, due to rain, before the deciding set. Masarova (24 years old, 104 WTA) won the first set 7-5, after Begu was 5-2, missing four set points. Begu (33 years old, 161 WTA) came back and prevailed 6-3 in the second act.
In the decider, Masarova started better and led with 3-1, but Begu managed to come back and equalize, 3-3, and at 4-4 he achieved a capital break, ending the accounts on his serve, with 6- 4, after two hours and 50 minutes of actual play.
Masarova, coming from the qualifications, committed 9 double faults, while Begu finished with 4 aces and 5 double faults, the Romanian saving 13 of the opponent’s 16 break points.
Begu secured a check for 16,965 euros and 35 WTA points, and in the second round she will face Kazakhstan’s Elena Rybakina, world number four. Irina won her only match so far against Rybakina (24 years old), in 2017, in the first round in Moscow, 6-1, 3-6, 6-3.
In Thursday’s program there are three other Romanians, who will perform in the second round.
Sorana Cîrstea, seed number 28, will face the Czech Brenda Fruhvirtova, Ana Bogdan will play against another Czech, Marketa Vondrousova, the sixth favorite, and Jaqueline Cristian, who entered the main draw as a “lucky loser” after withdrawing the Czech Barbora Krejcikova, will meet the Russian Elina Avanesian.
