St. Petersburg Ladies Trophy, Russia

[26] Dominika Cibulkova (SVK) vs.  [36] Sorana Cirstea (ROU)

Since her stellar performance in 2016, which was capped with the biggest title of her career, the WTA Finals championship; Cibulkova has struggled to reproduce that level of quality and consistency. While Cibulkova’s game is based on her great retrieving ability and being consistent; Cirstea’s game is based on taking risks, which contributes heavily to the inconsistency in her results.

The first set exemplifies why Cibulkova ended 2016 at number five and got as high as number four in the rankings. She is a persistent player, who never lets the score beat her. Mentally, she is one of the toughest players out there and she needs to be because she does not have the big weapons of many of her opponents. She wins by being fitter and more consistent off the ground and if you can rush her with pace, you can disrupt her game to your advantage.

Cirstea did that in the first four games; however, she lacked the stamina to maintain such a high quality of play and was too inconsistent when it mattered. Once she lost the first set after a commanding 4-0 lead, the Romanian lost her belief. Thus it was no surprise that the second set was a blowout. Cibulkova tightened up her game. In contrast to the first set, she did not give her opponent any opportunities to break her in the second set and won the match 7-5, 6-2.

Next up for the feisty Slovakian is the newly re-minted number ten, Kristina Mladenovic. They have met six previous times before and Mladenovic was only able to win their last encounter, can she repeat, or will Cibulkova get revenge?

SOURCE OF IMAGE:  Zimbio.com (Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images AsiaPac – Dominika Cibulkova)