Beijing, Oct 5 (IANS): Sorana Cirstea on Thursday knocked out Karolina Pliskova 6-1, 7-5 to advance to the quarter-finals of the China Open tennis tournament.
Cirstea got revenge for her defeat in the only previous match against former world no. 1 Pliskova in 2014, reports Efe news agency.
Pliskova broke the 27-year-old Romanian's serve early in the first set, but Cirstea rallied back, winning six games in a row to clinch the first set.
The Czech fourth seed won another break of serve early in the second set and built on that advantage to lead 5-2, before Cirstea mounted an impressive comeback, winning five consecutive games to seal the win after 83 minutes.
Cirstea will next take on Latvia's Jelena Ostapenko, the reigning French Open champion, who qualified for the last eight after local favourite Shuai Peng retired while trailing 0-3.