Shahar Peer
צילום: רויטרס
Beijing: Peer defeats Cirstea in first round
Israeli tennis champion wins first round against Romanian counterpart; next round against Ukraine’s Zvonareva
BEIJING – Tennis champion Shahar Peer defeated Romanian Sorana Cirstea on Monday evening, 6:3, 5:7, 6:0 and made it to the second round of the Olympic tennis tournament in Beijing. The second round will be against Ukrainian Vera Zvonareva.
Peer, who following the crisis she underwent in the last few months, is far from winning a medal. However, she began the set well, won the first, lost the second and won the third set after her Romanian counterpart was injured.
Peer broke the Romanian woman’s serve in their opening game and climbed to 2:0. Cirstea was close to making a comeback but Shahar salvaged two breaking points and reached a score of 4:2. The second break came when she won the set point fixing her score at 6:3 in the first set.
Cirstea held the reigns in the second set. She scored a breakpoint after three great returns and scored two additional breakpoints reaching a 5:0 advantage.
Shahar Peer's first Olympic appearance (Photo: AP)
Peer stole two points and the score stood at 2:5. She completed her comeback at 5:5 with two additional breakpoints. However, that’s where her comeback came to an end; she slowed down and ended losing 5:7.
The third set opened on a good note for Peer who reached a 3:0 gain. At this point, Cirstea became injured and the game was stopped in order to treat the Romanian athlete. After extended treatment, the two tennis stars returned to the set in which Peer ended up defeating Cirstea 6:0
