Jelena Ostapenko, 20, has been on a roll recently with the Asian swing on the hard court proving to be a fertile ground for her. She has made it into her third consecutive quarterfinal after taking advantage of an injured Shuai Peng in the third round. Ostapenko will collide with Sorana Cirstea for a place in the semis. The 27-year-old Romanian player delivered the biggest shock of the Premier Mandatory event in Beijing dispatching the former world No.1 Karolina Pliskova in straight sets. Cirstea is also into her second quarterfinal in Asia after a good start a few weeks ago in Seoul, South Korea.
Jelena Ostapenko starting to deliver that much-needed steadfastness
After winning the 2017 french open, Jelena Ostapenko (8 WTA) had another decent run at Wimbledon reaching the last eight stages only to lose to the eventual runner-up Venus Williams. The summer swing saw the young Latvian unable to keep the flame alive. With her tennis output starting to shrink, she went off the spotlight for a while. The Asian leg on hard court saw her bouncing back to clinch the title in Seoul. Keeping the momentum alive, she extended her winning streak to eight by reaching the semis last week in Wuhan (Premier 5). In Beijing, she got past Samantha Stosur in the first round while earlier today she benefited from her opponent's withdrawal.
She will face Sorana Cirstea (44 WTA) next, a player whom she has beaten a month ago in the second round of the US Open. The funny fact is that these have started playing doubles together recently.
Sorana Cirstea ready to return inside the top 40
Aged 27, Cirstea had her moments of glory several years ago. A shoulder injury put her professional career on hold as she had to fight hard to adjust her serve in order to compete.
She is into her second quarterfinal of a Premier Mandatory event in 2017 after scoring her only fourth win over a top 5 player. The former world No. 1 Karolina Pliskova was stunned by a highly-motivated Romanian player.
The first set saw Pliskova breaking her opponent's serve in the inaugural game. The underdog raced from behind to win six games in a row to put the set away.
The second act had the Czech star again with an early lead. Cirstea saved a break point while being down 3-0 to start mounting yet another comeback. Saving four set points helped her to plant the doubt in Pliskova's mind. Eventually, she served out the match converting the second match point she had.
On the same side of the draw with her fellow Romanian Simona Halep, Cirstea is about to return to top 40 after having several rough years. She and Halep may put up all-around Romanian duel in the semis.
