Sorana Cirstea (Romania) won the WTA 125 Catalonia Open after defeating Elizabeth Mandlik (USA) by 2-1 (6:1, 4:6, 7:6) in 2:17 hours.
The 34-year-old Romanian tennis player started the match strongly, winning the first set in only 27 minutes with 2 breaks. However, the second set started terribly for her, and Elizabeth Mandlik took a lead of 4:0. Sorana Cirstea returned one of the breaks, saved two set points and even equalized the breaks, but lost her serve in the 10th game and the American player equalized the score.
In the third decisive set, Sorana Cirstea needed to save the match point in the 10th game after both players exchanged two breaks each. Thus, the set went into a tiebreak, which the Romanian won by 7-1 and this captured her third WTA title.
Sorana Cirstea already has two WTA 250 titles (2008 Tashkent Open and 2021 TEB BNP Paribas Tennis Championship Istanbul) and now won also one WTA 125 title.
Her biggest achievements include reaching the quarterfinals at the 2009 French Open and the final at the 2013 Rogers Cup, but this season she is performing more than convincingly, reaching the semi-finals of the WTA 1000 Miami Open and the quarter-finals of the WTA 1000 Indian Wells Open.
