the Romanian Irina-Camelia Begu qualified for the quarterfinals of the Madrid tennis tournament after overcoming a bad start to beat Russian Luidmila Samsonova, eighteenth in the world, by 6-4 and 6-4.
Begu, ranked 35th in the world ranking, overtook the fourteenth favorite in Caja Mágica and will play in the quarterfinals with the winner of the clash between Paula Badosa and Maria Sakkari.
Far from his best days, having lived for the past decade, Begu thus achieved his best result of this seasonbecause none of the 1,000 category contests have more than one passing round.
After leading Samsonova 3-0, the Romanian strung together five straight games that he was guaranteed the first set if he held his next serve, as he did.
In the second set the clash hit, with a ‘break’ for each side until Begu added another in the ninth and closed out the game in a scoreless game.
Samsonova is one of five Russian players in the round of 16 of the Madrid tournament.
One of the great revelations of the tournament, Mayar Sherif, also sealed his ticket to the quarterfinals.. The Egyptian defeated the Belgian Elise Mertens 6-4, 0-6, 6-4 in a hard-fought match that lasted almost three hours.
The winner of the duel between Sabalenka and Andreeva will become her rival this Tuesday for a spot in the semifinals.
Source: La Verdad
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