Miami Open: Superb Cirstea shocks Sabalenka, reaches semi-finals

Romanian Sorana Cirstea reached the last 4 of the Miami Open by winning against Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka, the second seed, 6-4, 6-4 at the Hard Rock Stadium on Wednesday .

Cirstea has still not dropped a set in Miami, and is through to the semi-finals for the first time; in fact, she had never yet been beyond the round of 16.

Beating the world No 2 is the biggest win by ranking of her career; she had previously beaten a world No 4 on three occasions.

This will be her second WTA 1000 semi-final after reaching the 2013 Toronto final, where she lost to Serena Williams.

Cirstea, ranked No 74, will play the winner of the match between Russian Ekaterina Alexandrova, the No 18 seed, and Czech Petra Kvitova, the No 15 seed, next.

Earlier in the tournament, the Romanian defeated Mexican wildcard Fernanda Contreras Gomez (7-6 (6), 6-2), Frenchwoman Caroline Garcia, the No 5 seed (6-2, 6-3), Czech qualifier Karolina Muchova (7-5, 6-1) and Czech Marketa Vondrousova (7-6 (3), 6-4).

Sabalenka, ranked No 2, beat American Shelby Rogers (6-4, 6-3), Czech Marie Bouzkova, the No 31 seed (6-1, 6-2) and Czech Barbora Krejcikova, the No 16 seed (6-3, 6-2) in the previous rounds of the Miami tournament.

Miami WTA 1000, other last 8 results (Hard Rock Stadium, hard, USD 8.800.000, most recent results first):

• Ekaterina Alexandrova vs. Petra Kvitova
• Jessica Pegula (3) beat Anastasia Potapova (27): 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (2)
• Elena Rybakina (10) beat Martina Trevisan (25): 6-3, 6-0