After six hours on the courts in one day, Cirstea reaches the quarter-finals in Dubai

Sorana Cirstea had to dig deep to reach the quarter-finals of the WTA 1000 Dubai.

The Romanian, who was a semi-finalist in last year's tournament, received an invitation from the organizers this season.

Due to yesterday's capricious weather in Dubai, the 35-year-old found herself playing two matches this Wednesday, first beating Alycia Parks (3-6, 6-4, 6-1) in the morning in 2h18, before then taking on Emma Navarro, ranked 9th in the world, on center court in the night session.

The battle was fierce between the two players, but it was Cirstea who had the last word at the end of a 3-hour match (7-6, 3-6, 7-5), the match ending at 11.30pm local time.

A trying day for the Romanian, who will have to try and recover as best she can before her quarter-final tomorrow against Karolina Muchova.

In a post-match interview, she declared: "Sometimes tennis is brutal. It's not fair that one of us lost this match today.

But we're warriors. That's why we're professional tennis players."