NEW YORK, Aug. 31 (Xinhua) -- Former world No. 1 Maria Sharapova defeated Sorana Cirstea of Romania 6-2, 7-5 for the third round in the US Open on Thursday.
The 2006 champion has just come from a hard-fought victory over former world No. 7 Patty Schnyder of Switzerland on Tuesday, and had to battle through another tough match against Cirstea, who has been ranked as high as world No. 21, before ultimately edging past the Romanian after an hour and 50 minutes on court.
Sharapova and Cirstea fought hard from the start, playing a 13 minute third game that featured multiple deuces before the Russian held on for 3-0 and took the first set.
A Roland Garros quarterfinalist in 2009, Cirstea broke serve to start the second set and maintained her lead until it came time to serve for a decider. Sharapova rallied from within two points of a final set to break back and win the final three games of the match to reach the round of 32.
In all, Sharapova struck 26 winners to 33 unforced errors, including five aces and 10 doubles faults, while Cirstea also hit 33 errors but only 20 winners in total.
Up next for the five-time Grand Slam champion is No. 10 seed and 2017 French Open winner Jelena Ostapenko from Latvia.
