31-year-old Kazakhstani Yulia Putintseva (82) failed to win in the quarterfinals of the WTA-250 tournament in Romania. The country's second-ranked player lost a grueling match to 30-year-old Mayar Sherif (97) of Egypt – 2:6, 6:3, 6:7 (5:7). This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Kursiv Media.

In the first set, Putintseva managed to recover a break made by her opponent in the second game – 1:1. However, she immediately lost her serve again, and then another one a game later. Yulia made another break at 1:5. After that, she served extremely poorly again – 2:6.

The second set was excellent for the Kazakhstani. Showing her trademark tennis, choppy and unpredictable, she took three of her opponent's serves. And won – 6:3.

The sticky, drawn-out tennis with many long rallies continued in the deciding set. In a three-hour match in 30-degree heat, both players worked to exhaustion. After losing her serve in the 10th game, Putintseva did not allow her opponent to serve for the match – 6:6.

In the tiebreak, the Egyptian led 2-0, but Yulia did not let her pull away – 2-2. 5-2 – Mayar ahead again, Putintseva almost catches up – 5-4. Yet on the third match point, Sherif succeeded – 6:2, 3:6, 7:6 (7:5). The match lasted three hours and nine minutes.

At the Unicredit Iasi Open, Zhibek Kulambayeva (174) continues her campaign. In doubles with former Russian Alina Charaeva (862), now playing for Armenia, our tennis player will compete for a place in the final tonight against the favorites – the top-seeded pair of Magali Kempen (52) from Belgium and Alexandra Panova (38) from Russia.

In the quarterfinals, the Kazakh-Armenian duo defeated Spain's Georgina Garcia Perez (499) and Russia's Alevtina Ibragimova (315) – 6:2, 7:5.

The tennis Unicredit Iasi Open appeared recently – in 2022. In 2025, the clay court tournament in Iasi took the place of the Hungarian Grand Prix in the WTA calendar and received the '250' category.

The singles title has been won three times by local players. Except for 2024, when young Russian star Mirra Andreeva triumphed. The doubles title that year was won by the duo of Anna Danilina (Kazakhstan) and Irina Khromacheva (Russia).

The prize fund of Unicredit Iasi Open-2026 is $283,350. The top seed, Romanian Jaqueline Cristian (37), withdrew from the tournament at the last moment. Her place in the draw was taken by Putintseva.