UPDATE 00:04. Unfortunately, Irina Begu failed to qualify in the 3rd round of the competition, after losing to Sabina Lisicki (16th WTA), 15th favorite in Madrid.
The Romanian lost to her rival, score 3-6, 4-6, after an hour and 23 minutes of play. Consistent on serve, Begu did not find solutions on the return, and Lisicki converted 82% of her first serves into points.
The German saved four break chances out of five, while Begu suffered 3 breaks (out of 12 chances). In the next round, Lisicki will face Simona Halep. In their direct duels, the score is equal, 1-1, and both disputes were on hard. Irina Begu, the beneficiary of a wildcard, will receive 21,600 euros and 65 WTA points for her participation.
On Wednesday, Simona Halep (22 years old) defeated Lara Arruabarrena and qualified for the next round of the WTA tournament in Madrid (DETAILS) .
In the next phase, she will play against the winner of the duel Irina Begu – Sabine Lisicki, and the world number 5 would not want to play against her compatriot, who is going through a very good form.
After the match with Arruabarrena, which ended 6-4, 6-4, Halep spoke to Digi Sport about the progress made on her serve, which has been very good lately. “I worked a lot on my serve, because I wanted to end up serving well. Even in the important moments I served very well, and the ace helped me a lot and helped me in the first round as well. I hope it helps me all the time and I’m progressing more and more with my game, because that’s what I want.”
Halep feels great in Madrid, where she enjoys the support of the stands. She is appreciated by the Iberian public, even if she eliminated a local favorite, Arruabarrena, ranked 146 in the world: “It was a pleasant atmosphere, in general in Spain everyone is very fair-play, they don’t just cheer for the Spaniards. I’m very glad that I fans and I have supporters all the time, every match, I always try to play nice tennis and please them as much as possible”.
Although Irina Begu will also enter the field on Wednesday evening, Halep will not watch her match with the German Sabine Lisicki, from which her future opponent will be chosen. The reason? Fatigue. “I think Irina can beat Lisicki, but it will be a tough match. I don’t want to play with any of them, but whoever the opponent is, I have to play my game. It would be nicer to be a Romanian round 3. I won’t watch the match, because it’s playing late and I’ll go to the hotel to rest to be ready for tomorrow,” Halep said.
The rise of Romanian athletes does not surprise Simona Halep, who praised her friends: “I think we all work as hard and we want to be up there. I can’t say that I was an impetus for them, for that Sorana and Irina were there before me. We are a small country, but we have so many possibilities to train and reach the top. I am a 100% Romanian product and I think that Romania can be proud of it us!”.
