Unseeded No. 59 ranked Sorana Cirstea of Romania pulled off a big shocker over No. 6 seed Samantha Stosur of Australia with a straight sets win, 7-6 (7-2), 6-3 in the first round of the Australian Open at Melbourne Park.
It took only 91 minutes for the Romanian to pull off the huge upset at Stosur’s home Grand Slam. It was the earliest exit for Stosur at the Australian Open since 2005, and continues her miserable showing at Melbourne. In 10 visits, the 27-year-old Stosur has managed just 14 wins and she’s only twice progressed beyond the third round.
After a second-round loss in Brisbane and first-round demise in Sydney, Stosur arrived in Melbourne down on confidence and openly admitted to struggling under the weight of expectation. Stosur had comfortably beaten Cirstea in straight sets in both their previous meetings, but never looked comfortable in Rod Laver Arena on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, Cirstea is playing in her 5th Australian Open, having never made it past the 2nd round. This was a huge win for Cirstea, and should certainly give her some confidence for her next match.
