The Romanian booked her spot in the final after a three set battle that lasted over two hours.
It was semifinals day and we had two amazing three set matches to decide who would face off for the title on Saturday featuring Sorana Cirstea against Magda Linette and Barbora Krejcikova playing the German qualifier Jule Niemeier.
The first match featured the Romania vs Poland battle and the first three games went on serve before the world number 48 managed to earn the first breakpoint of the match and take the early 3-1 lead.
That break was enough for her to serve out the first set and take it by the score of 6-3 in 37 minutes.
The second set followed a similar pattern and once again it was the Pole who would earn the first break of the set but couldn’t consolidate the break and the world number 61 broke right back before being broken once again the following game.
At 3-2 the Bucharest, Romania native had a chance to break to go back on serve and after saving the first two she was able to break the Poznan, Poland native to once again go back on serve at 3-3.
The world number 48 saved two more breakpoints with her aggressive forehand before eventually holding serve and at 5-4 with the Pole serving to stay in the set the Romanian would finally capitalize and break to take the second set and send it to a deciding third set.
After holding her opening service game the Romanian had a chance to break in the following service game but again the world number 48 hung in and saved it before holding serve.
At 3-2 the world number 61 had three more chances to break and this time she would get the break and at 5-2 she would break the Pole serve again to win the match in two hours and eight minutes.
After her match Cirstea spoke about how proud she was to battle back from a set down to get the win today against a very tough opponent.
“I’m very proud because I thought it was a very good match with a very high level, we were both hitting our forehands and backhands and for me to stay there and not drop my level and raise it in the important moments, it was a mental win and it gave me a lot of confidence”.
She will face the number five seed in Saturdays final who is Barbora Krejcikova who managed to end the dream run of the German qualifier Jule Niemeier in three tight sets and a match that lasted two hours and 14 minutes.
The first four games of the match went on serve and at 2-2 it was the German who would earn the first breakpoint of the match and break the following point when the world number seven served a double fault.
It stayed on serve again until 5-4 with the world number 216 serving for the first set and it seems she started to get tight and the Czech number five seed managed to earn a breakpoint and break back to go back on serve.
The break didn’t last long as the Dortmund native earned two breakpoints the following game and broke before serving out the first set to take it 7-5. The world number seven started the second set much better and after holding the opening service game managed to get the early break to take a 2-0 lead.
The 21 year old stormed back the following game and after another double fault broke the world number seven to go back on serve but failed to consolidate the break and was broken again.
At 4-1, the German was struggling with her serve and two straight double-faults gave the Czech a breakpoint and the double break to take a commanding 5-1 lead but the world number 216 battled back to get one of the breaks back and at 5-3 the world number seven served out the second set.
Again the third set stayed on serve the first four games and at 2-2 the German would double fault to give two breakpoints but she would manage to save both and hold serve.
At 3-3 it was world number seven who had a chance to break and she did just that and that break was enough for her to serve out the match and book her spot in the final.
After the final Krejcikova gave her thoughts on her German opponent and told the story of a similar experience that happened to her a couple of years back in Germany.
“This week she (Niemeier) was doing really well, I actually remember when I did something similar in 2017 in Nuremberg when I was a qualifier where I actually reached the finals and I was playing players who are higher ranked than me and I was doing good things so she showed she can play big tennis, serving very well, she’s very solid”.
Saturday final is all set as Sorana Cirstea will face Barbora Krejcikova for the title in Strasbourg and and currently the head to head is 1-1 and they most recently played in Dubai last December and it was the Romanian coming out on top.
