Sorana Cirstea is a Romanian tennis player, who had achieved a career-high ranking of world No 21 on August 12, 2013. Her biggest achievements are reaching the quarterfinals at the 2009 French Open and the final at the 2013 Rogers Cup. She had won
Sorana Cirstea was born on April 7, 1990, in Bucharest, Romania. She was introduced to tennis at the age of four by her mother. She is a former ITF Junior Circuit top-ten player. Sorana Cirstea is an aggressive baseliner, whose game centers around her quick, flat, and powerful groundstrokes. As a result of her high-risk game style, she typically accumulates high numbers of both winners and unforced errors.
Sorana Cirstea won her first ITF title at the $25,000 W25 Bucharest in 2007. She also reached the final of the $50,000 $50,000 Minsk in Belarus but lost from Evgeniya Rodina.
In 2008, the Romanian player debuted in the WTA tour. At the beginning of the year, she took part at the WTA 250 Copa Colsanitas in Bogota, Colombia (lost in the second round) and WTA 250 Abierto Mexicano in Acapulco, Mexico (lost in the quarter-finals). The same year, she played at the WTA 1000 Miami Open (lost in the first round) and WTA 1000 Volvo Car Open in Charleston, USA (lost in the third round). Later, she was the runner-up of the ITF tournaments: $50,000 Bucharest, $100,000 Cuneo, $100,000 Athens. In September, Sorana Cirstea won her first WTA tournament, beating Sabine Lisicki in the final of the WTA 250 Tashkent Open.
The Romanian tennis player made a fantastic performance in 2009. She started the year with poor results with the biggest achievement being the semi-final of the WTA 250 Andalucia Tennis Experience. However, in May, she reached the quarter-finals of the French Open / Roland Garros. In August, Sorana Cirstea made a great performance at the WTA 1000 East West Bank Classic in Carson, California, reaching the semi-finals after defeating Caroline Wozniacki, Sabine Lisicki, and Agnieszka Radwanska. At the US Open, she also performed well reaching the third round.
Next two years, Sorana Cirstea did not have remarkable performance. She reached the semi-finals of the WTA 250 Estoril Open in 2010, as well as the quarter-finals of the WTA 250Istanbul Cup and the WTA 250 Danish Open. In 2011, she won the ITF trophies at the $100,000 Cagnes-Sur-Mer, $100,000+H Saint Malo, and $50,000 Limoges.
Sorana Cirstea returned to her winning route in 2012, reaching the semi-finals of the WTA 250 PTT Pattaya Open, WTA 250 Barcelona Ladies Open, WTA 250 Guangzhou Open, as well as WTA 500 Bank of the West Classic in Stanford, California.
The best year for Sorana Cirstea definitely was 2013, when she made her biggest career achievements. In January, she reached the third round at the Australian Open. Next month she reached the semi-finals of the WTA 250 PTT Pattaya Open, while in March she reached the third round of the WTA 1000 Miami Open. At the French Open / Roland Garros, Sorana Cirstea reached the third round, but was defeated by Serena Williams. In July, she reached the semi-finals of the WTA 500 Bank of the West Classic in Stanford, California. Her biggest achievement was the runner-up of the WTA 1000 Rogers Cup in Montreal, Canada.
After the good performance, there was a sharp drop for her. She hardly made something remarkable at the WTA during the next years. In 2016, she won another ITF trophy at $25,000 Bertioga but hardly proceeded over the first round of the WTA tournaments.
In 2017, however, Sorana Cirstea returned to the big tennis. At the Australian Open, she reached the fourth round but was defeated by Garbine Muguruza. At the WTA 1000 Miami Open, she reached the third round, while at the WTA 1000 Mutua Madrid Open she reached the quarter-finals. At Wimbledon, she reached the third round but lost again by Garbine Muguruza. In October, Sorana Cirstea made another great performance at the WTA 1000 China Open but was defeated by Jelena Ostapenko in the quarter-finals.
In 2019, she made another fantastic tour at WTA 250 Tashkent Open, reaching the finals, where lost by Alison Van Uytvanck. The next year, she was the runner-up at the $100,000 W100+H Dubai, but lost by Katerina Siniakova.
Sorana Cirstea won another trophy in 2021. She won the WTA 250 Istanbul Open in April. A month later, she went the runner-up of the WTA 250 Strasbourg Open and reached the fourth round of the French Open / Roland Garros.