Iga ¦wi ± tek met a rival in the fourth round of AO. The first such duel

in the fourth round of this year’s Australian Open she will play with over 11 years her senior. The Romanian player already has less success in singles than the Polish one, which does not mean, however, that she will be an easy rival for the 20-year-old.

Success Sorany Cirstei

The 31-year-old’s greatest achievement in the Grand Slam tournaments was reaching the quarter-finals in 2009, where she lost to Samatha Stosur. In last year’s edition of this tournament, the Romanian reached the fourth round, which is her best result in her career.

As for Cirstea, the best result was in 2017, when she finished the competition in the fourth round (defeat by Garbine Muguruza). In 2021, she was eliminated in the third round, losing to Marka Vondrousova.

Throughout her career, Sorana Cirstea has only won two WTA tournaments. In October 2008, she defeated Sabine Lisicki 2: 6, 6: 4, 7: 6 (4) in Tashkent, while in April 2021 in Istanbul, she beat Elise Mertens 6: 1, 7: 6 (3).

The best year for the Romanian tennis player in terms of the position in the ranking was 2013, when she was placed 22nd. A year earlier, it was 27th at the end of the year, and 37th in 2008 and 2017.

Sorana Cirstei’s way to the fourth round of the Australian Open

This year’s edition of the Australian Open Cirstea showed very good side. In the first round she unexpectedly won 6-2, 6-2. Then she also confidently defeated Kristina Kucova from Slovakia 6: 2, 6: 4, and in the third round she made another surprise, beating the above-noted Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6: 3, 2: 6, 6: 2.

The duel, the stake of which will be the promotion to the quarter-finals of the Australian Open, between Iga Świątek and Sorana Cirstea will take place on Monday, January 24 at 1:00 a.m. Polish time.