[HowardH]

At least it's a win. Good luck to Sorana in the second round.

[Curcubeu]

Palermo, R2: (6)Tsvetana Pironkova def. Sorana Cîrstea 2-6 6-1 6-1

2009 Sorana with more than 50% first serves just lasted for one set, then she switched with slumping Sori again...

[Sasja]

Originally Posted by Curcubeu

Palermo, R2: (6)Tsvetana Pironkova def. Sorana Cîrstea 2-6 6-1 6-1

2009 Sorana with more than 50% first serves just lasted for one set, then she switched with slumping Sori again...

[HowardH]

Originally Posted by Curcubeu

Palermo, R2: (6)Tsvetana Pironkova def. Sorana Cîrstea 2-6 6-1 6-1

2009 Sorana with more than 50% first serves just lasted for one set, then she switched with slumping Sori again...

It's true that her first serve percentage dropped a little- from 58% in the first set to 44% in the second and 47% in the third, but the real killer was the amount she was winning behind her serves.

In the first set she was winning 74% of her serving points (73% behind first serve, 75% behind second serve) while in the second set she won only 33% of serving points (33% behind both first and second serve). And in the third set she wasn't much better, winning only 47% of serving points (38% behind first serve, 56% behind second serve).

Overall she won less behind her first serve (48%) than behind her second serve (50%). Pironkova was not doing particularly well behind second serve (46%, worse than Sori) but she won a respectable amount behind the first serve (68%).

Naturally, you would also like to get a decent first serve percentage (I always suggest 55-60% as an okay target) but in Sorana's case sometimes she doesn't win points even when she gets the first serve in.

It's hard to tell how much of this is due to the serve itself and how much is due to Sori's poor following-up of the serve. Normally, to win a good amount of points behind the first serve you need to either get free points (not really a wta thing unless you're a way above average server) or at least gain a slight advantage and use the serve to start an attack or stay in charge of a point. Clearly, Sorana is not doing well when she tries to use attacking combinations like the 1-2 punch etc. Without seeing it I think when she loses a bit of rhythm (which happens most of the time nowadays) every time she tries to attack she mistimes the ball.

I would guess that in the first set Pironkova was pretty bad, and Sorana's aggressive shots were going in a litt e more than usual for her these days. Either that or Tsveti was missing a lot of returns and not giving Sori a chance to make errors.

[Curcubeu]

sorana_cirstea Sorana Cirstea
Just came through my mind...why are cows fat if they only eat grass??
4 hours ago

Her tweets are arising a lot of rumours on GM

[hellas719]

Sori
Seriously I'm giving up hope
She never was consistent and 2009 was such an up and down year, but she was able to have some good tournaments (RG, Wimbledon, US Open, Marbella, Los Angeles, etc.), but this year her only tournament that can compare to those was RG

[hellas719]

And she lost the doubles R1 (with Klepac) to Mircic/Thorpe. Beyond Pathetic.

[Curcubeu]

Next tournament is the 100k in Bucharest. Maybe she can pull another Cagnes-sur-mer in front of her home crowd!

[Villaran]

Curcubeu do you can give to me the website of that tournament? And the web where say all the tournaments?

[Saraya00000]

My God..all the results of Sorana - horrible, sorry! She is able to play really well but she didn´t do! she is not focussed enough for tennis..she has to change it soon!

[Curcubeu]

Originally Posted by Villaran

Curcubeu do you can give to me the website of that tournament? And the web where say all the tournaments?

No problem:

The official tournament website, also in English
http://www.bcropen.ro/en/

The ITF info sheet:
http://www.itftennis.com/womens/tour...ent=1100024716

Originally Posted by Saraya00000

My God..all the results of Sorana - horrible, sorry! She is able to play really well but she didn´t do! she is not focussed enough for tennis..she has to change it soon!

Yeah, just have a look at her tweets or facebook entries where she is talking about everything, but her sport. A x-peria fotoshoot here, another sponsorship appointment there. No surprise that she is distracted from her actual job: Playing tennis...

[Villaran]

Curcubeu thanks so much!

[Meelis]

Bucharest

(1)Simona Halep (ROU) v Masa Zec-Peskiric (SLO)
(wc)Cristina Dinu (ROU) v Q
Anna Floris (ITA) v Alexandra Cadantu (ROU)
(8)Renata Voracova (CZE) v Laura Thorpe (FRA)

(3)Sorana Cirstea (ROU) v (wc)Diana Enache (ROU)
Liana-Gabriela Ungur (ROU) v Madalina Gojnea (ROU)
Karolina Pliskova (CZE) v Q
(5)Laura Pous-Tio (ESP) v Ioana-Raluca Olaru (ROU)

Carla Suarez Navarro (ESP) v Q
Elena Bogdan (ROU) v Q
Elitsa Kostova (BUL) v Kiki Bertens (NED)
(4)Petra Martic (CRO) v Stefanie Voegele (SUI)

(7)Maria-Elena Camerin (ITA) v Beatriz Garcia-Vidagany (ESP)
Erika Sema (JPN) v (wc)Elora Dabija (ROU)
Sesil Karatantcheva (KAZ) v (wc)Cristina-Andreea Mitu (ROU)
(2)Irina-Camelia Begu (ROU) v Corinna Dentoni (ITA)

[grs]

A semi against Simona?

[Curcubeu]

Bucharest, R1: (3)Sorana Cîrstea def. (WC)Diana Enache 6-3 6-4

A win is a win...