Sorana Cîrstea held off a late charge from Tyra Grant on Friday in Madrid, beating the 18-year-old 6-2, 7-6 (7/5) to reach the third round of the WTA 1,000 tournament. The 36-year-old Romanian finished the match in one hour and 25 minutes.
Cîrstea, ranked 26th in the WTA rankings and seeded 25th in Madrid, looked to have the match under control after taking the first set. Grant, ranked 262nd, had arrived after her first win in a WTA main draw and made the veteran work for every point once the second set tightened.
The match turned when Cîrstea came back from 3-5 down in the second set, then did it again in the tiebreak. She won four consecutive points to close out the match and avoid a deciding set. That finish was enough to secure 54,110 euro and 65 WTA points, with a place in the next round now set against the winner of Coco Gauff and Leolia Jeanjean.
The Madrid event carries total prize money of 8,235,540 dollars and is one of the sport’s biggest clay-court stops before the rest of the spring schedule settles in. Cîrstea’s comeback mattered because it kept a seeded player moving in a draw that has already offered younger names a path into the spotlight, much like Sinja Kraus gets a clay-court test against Sorana Cirstea in Linz, where experience and patience again shape the matchup.
For Grant, the loss does not erase the value of a first WTA main-draw win that has already pushed her into tougher territory. For Cîrstea, the next task is sharper: either Gauff or Jeanjean awaits, and the margin for another slow start will be much smaller.