Romanian tennis player Sorana Cirstea defeated compatriot Monica Niculescu 6-2, 6-3 on Thursday, at Indian Wells tournament with prizes of USD 7,972,535 to advance to the second round. In the next match, Cirstea will face Venus Williams, 8th seeded, on Saturday.
Mihaela Buzarnescu (38th WTA) was defeated by Jennifer Brady (US, 86th WTA) 3-6, 6-4, 6-2.
In the doubles event, Monica Niculescu, pairing with Andrea Sestini Hlavackova, won the match against Karolina and Kristyna Pliskova 6-2, 2-6, 10-4 to reach the last sixteen round. In the next round, the Romanian-Czech pair will face Shuko Aoyama (Japan)/Zhaoxuan Yang (China).
In another doubles match, the pair made up by Simona Halep and Irina Begu was defeated in the first round by Nicole Melichar and Kveta Peschke 3-6, 6-1, 3-10.
Romania’s only representative in the men’s competition, Marius Copil, was defeated in the first round 7-6 (3), 6-7 (5), 7-6 (12) by Canadian Peter Polansky.