Romania's Cirstea advances to US Open women's singles 2nd round

Romanian tennis player Sorana Cirstea progressed to the women's singles second round of the US Open tournament, the last Grand Slam of the year, after beating 29th -seeded Veronika Kudermetova of Russiah 7- 6 (5) 3-6 6-0 on Tuesday. Cirstea, 31, world number 39, prevailed over 24-year-old Kudermetova, world number 31, in about two hours (2 h 02 min). The only previous Cirstea- Kudermetova head-to-head meet ended with the Romanian's victory, 6-1 6-4, in the 2015 quarter-finals of the Biarritz Open (ITF). Cirstea won 115,000 and 70 WTA singles points, and in the second round she will face off American Shelby Rogers, 28, world number 43. Rogers has won their only head-to-head match so far - 6-4 6-4 - in semi-finals of the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. Among the Romanians, only Sorana Cirstea and Simona Halep have survived the first round at Flushing Meadows, with Halep to play today Kristina Kucova of Slovakia. AGERPRES (RO - editor: Mihai Tenea; EN - author: Corneliu-Aurelian Colceriu, editor: Adina Panaitescu)