Sorana Cirstea goes for strong return

Azarenka has edge over young rival

Azarenka swing The Centre Court had an intriguing glimpse into the future today when Victoria Azarenka faced Sorana Cirstea for a place in the third round. These two 19-year-olds may have been new faces to many at Wimbledon but to each other they are very familiar, having jousted many times on their way through the junior rankings. But Azarenka’s six months’ seniority counts for a lot at this level and after a tight first set her extra experience showed as she won 7-6 (7-2), 6-3. Azarenka and Cirstea are joined by another fact – each produced the best Grand Slam performance of their careers at Roland Garros this month by making the quarter-finals. And at senior level these two have a habit already of meeting in Slams. At Roland Garros last year Belarusian Azarenka achieved the dreaded “double bagel” (6-0, 6-0) over Cirstea and one month later at Wimbledon, the Romanian managed just four games in defeat. This first meeting of 2009 was very different. No quarter was given in the first set, and it was clearly about who would blink first. Azarenka’s first serve was formidable. Break points were few and shared almost evenly, but both players held their games together and it stayed on serve. But what emerged clearly – as always when Azarenka is on court – is her signature combative nature. Not only did she routinely rebuke herself, making no attempt to disguise any thought going through her mind, but she hit the ball with every stroke as if she wished to blow it to smithereens. For as long as Cirstea kept returning it, which she did, Azarenka’s frustration grew – and with it her trademark shriek, which reduces Maria Sharapova’s grunt to a murmur by comparison. As often happens, the crowd soon tired of it and began overtly to support her opponent. Azarenka has not only seen all this before but tends actively to thrive on it. If a crowd dislikes her, she can seem to abhor them right back. Certainly by the time they reached the tiebreak there was no doubting who the Centre Court crowd favoured. But that was just the moment when a couple of Cirstea errors tipped the balance Azarenka’s way, and then the Belarusian brought up four set points with a fabulous crosscourt passing shot. A hammer volley snatched the set. In the second set Cirstea had a chance to break in the first game but it went away from her. Thereafter Azarenka’s relentless baseline superiority began to emerge more clearly. She broke at the first opportunity and stretched away to win, greeted by what can only be described as tepid applause from the crowd. It was the first time the Centre Court had witnessed a match between these two, but it will surely not be the last. Azarenka will face Nadia Petrova on Monday for a place in the quarter-finals. Centre Court - Ladies' Singles - 3rd Round Victoria Azarenka BLR (8) 77 6 Sorana Cirstea ROU (28) 62 3

One to watch: Sorana Cirstea

Cirstea forehand Bubbly Romanian teenager Sorana Cirstea is a likeable person - so much so that she seems to have a close relationship with almost everyone on the WTA circuit. Take the third round of this year’s French Open for example, when she took on Caroline Wozniacki. “Caroline is my best friend,” said the 19-year-old from Bucharest. “We do everything together. Sometimes I have trouble leaving my emotions out of my game - it’s hard to forget that when you step on the court.” It may have been hard, but she most certainly did leave her emotions in the locker room, squeezing past the Dane 7-6 (7-3), 7-5. Wozniacki was one of three seeds whom she beat on her way to the quarter-finals. Alize Cornet was dispatched in the second round and before she claimed the scalp of Jelena Jankovic in the last 16. That three-set epic , which she won 9-7, in the decider thrust her into the general sporting consciousness for the first time. Cirstea was 14 when adidas approached her and helped her take her first steps on the ITF circuit, but since then she has gone on to re-write her country’s history books. Ruxandra Dragomir was the last Romanian to reach the final of a WTA event, in 2000, which Cirstea emulated at s’Hertogenbosch in 2007, while her appearance in the last eight at Roland Garros also equalled Dragomir’s performance in 1997. This week, she has again put sentiment to one side to eliminate a close friend from a Grand Slam tournament. After going deep at Eastbourne in the Wimbledon warm-up tournament, Sania Mirza did not have time to re-pack her suitcases before making the short journey north to London SW19, so it was her pal Sorana who stepped into the breach and leant her the necessary clothing – before unceremoniously dumping her out of The Championships in the second round on Wednesday. Today, the No.28 seed is facing Victoria Azarenka who, despite being the same age as Cirstea, is 19 places above her in the world and defeated her in their two meetings to date, dropping only four games in the process – a 6-1, 6-3 success here last year and a “double bage” (6-0, 6-0) prior to that at the French. Unfortunately for the Romanian, she and Azarenka have never played doubles together – otherwise she would no doubt have relished the opportunity to send yet another friend crashing out of the tournament.

Cirstea puts friendship aside to beat Mirza

Sania Mirza Rising teenager star Sorana Cirstea cruised to a 6-4, 6-4 victory over her friend and rival Sania Mirza in a one-sided contest on Court 12. The Romanian used her powerful serve and booming ground strokes to outlast Mirza, who was once India’s hottest property. The tie pitted together two close friends (so much so that Sorana loaned Sania some clothes earlier in the week when the Indian discovered that she had travelled a little too light), although they had never faced each other in a competitive match before today. Their careers have taken opposite paths over the past few years – while Mirza went from being a seed here two tournaments ago to finishing 2008 in the outer reaches of the top 100, Cirstea is coming off a quarter-final appearance at the French Open and is herself a seed (28) for the first time in a Grand Slam. Conditions were windy out on court, and while Cirstea settled quickly, Mirza seemed less comfortable on serve. She was eventually broken in the fifth game, and that was all the incentive the Romanian teenager needed to bang down service winner after service winner and take the opener 6-4. The second stanza was a more up-and-down affair as both players struggled for rhythm. Big first serves would tend to win points, slower second offerings would be pounced on and breaks were traded until mid-set. What rallies they produced were very much dominated by substance over style. Both players have crisp forehands and booming two-handed backhands, and Mirza’s ground-strokes in particular are suited to grass, as proved by her progress to the semi-finals at Eastbourne earlier this month. Any spectators looking for a slice or, heaven forbid, a drop-shot, however, would have been driven to seek solace on another court early in the contest. The fifth break of the set gave Cirstea a 5-4 lead, and she served out to book her place in the third round where she will have to face eighth seed Victoria Azarenka who made short work of another Romanian, Ioana Raluca Olaru. Mirza, meanwhile, is left to struggle on the WTA circuit, deprived of the spotlight that once so mercilessly pursued her, turned her into a youth icon for the entire Indian sub-continent and has now abandoned her at the tender age of 22. Court 12 - Ladies' Singles - 2nd Round Sania Mirza IND 4 4 Sorana Cirstea ROU (28) 6 6