Ella Seidel continues her winning streak in Cluj-Napoca. Now she’s taking on the top-seeded player.
Young tennis hopeful Ella Seidel has pulled off the next surprise by reaching the quarterfinals in Cluj-Napoca, Romania.
The 19-year-old defeated Russia’s Anna Blinkova 6-2, 7-6 (7-5) in the round of 16 on Thursday and will face top-seeded Russia’s Anastasia Potapova in the last eight.
Seidel stays cool in tiebreak
For Seidel, ranked 143 in the world, it was only the second victory in the main draw of a WTA tournament this season, following her success on Wednesday against Jaqueline Cristian of Romania. The young woman from Hamburg had successfully fought her way through the qualifiers in Cluj.
The 19-year-old got off to a furious start against Blinkova, who is ranked 72 positions above Seidel in the world rankings, leading 5-0 after just 20 minutes and taking the first set shortly afterwards.
In the tiebreak of the evenly matched second set, Seidel kept her nerve and converted her first match point to win.
