American qualifier Lauren Davis sent another seed packing from the Moorilla Hobart International today, beating No.2 seed Sorana Cirstea in straight sets, 6-1 6-3.
Seemingly everything was going right for the 19-year-old from Florida as she raced out to take the first set 6-1. Weather conditions became trying in the second with gusty winds and several rain delays interrupting the flow of play.
Nothing could throw Davis off though as she proceeded to take the second set 6-3 and advance to the quarterfinals, equaling her best ever performance at a WTA event.
The young American cites the scalp of Cirstea as one of the biggest of her short career.
“I’m not sure if it’s my biggest win but I think it’s up there, I knew she was a really good player and I’ve seen her play on TV so I’m really happy that I won today,” she said.
No. 2 seed Sorana Cirstea was disappointed with the loss.
“It’s disappointing,” she said.
“I really wanted to do well here. I’m still not sure what went wrong. Something was off today and I can’t really say what. I couldn’t really get the feeling of the game, so I’ll just have to put it as a bad day and try to forget about it,” she added.
Today’s result marked five consecutive wins for Lauren Davis at the tournament this week so far, overcoming Yue Yue Hu, Julia Glushko and Nina Bratchikova in the qualifiers before defeating Australian wildcard entrant Bojana Bobusic in the first round yesterday.
“I actually like going through the qualifiers because you get a lot of good matches in and get used to the courts and the weather,” she said.
Davis will meet the winner of tonight’s match between fellow American and No.8 seed Sloane Stephens and Romania’s Simona Halep.
By Nick Cuthbertson.