Sorana Cîrstea

Sorana Cîrstea
Sorana Cîrstea 2011 in Bucharest
Nation:	Romania
Birthday:	7th April 1990 (age 30)
Size:	176 cm
Weight:	59 kg
1st professional season:	2006
Playing hand:	Right, two-handed backhand
Trainer:	Carl Maes
Prize money:	$ 5,571,192
singles
Career record:	444: 334
Career title:	1 WTA , 8 ITF
Highest ranking:	21 (August 12, 2013)
Current placement:	75
Grand Slam record
Double
Career record:	150: 121
Career title:	5 WTA, 9 ITF
Highest ranking:	35 (March 9, 2009)
Current placement:	197
Grand Slam record
Mixed
Grand Slam record
Last update of the infobox: March 16, 2020
Sources: official player profiles at the ATP / WTA and ITF (see web links )

Sorana Mihaela Cîrstea (born April 7, 1990 in Bucharest ) is a Romanian tennis player .

Career

Rapid rise to the expanded world elite: 2005 to 2009

At the age of four, Sorana was introduced to tennis by her mother Liliana. Her first international success was the triumph at the Junior Orange Bowl in 2003, where she was the first Romanian ever to win the under-fourteen-year-old category. She made her debut on the ITF Women's World Tennis Tour at the age of 15 . At the end of 2005 she won her first professional tournament there; At the same time, she also appeared in the main field of the junior women competitions of all four Grand Slam tournaments and reached the third round in Melbourne , Paris and New York and climbed to sixth place in the junior world rankings .

Her international breakthrough came in 2007, when she passed the qualification right away while participating in her first WTA tournament in Budapest and then, after four three-set wins in a row, reached the final, which she also lost in three sets against Gisela Dulko . In Wimbledon , she then started for the first time in the qualifying round of a Grand Slam tournament and was eliminated in the second round. In addition, Cîrstea was able to win the ITF tournament in the $ 25,000 category in Bucharest in front of a home crowd , in which she did not lose a set, and reached another WTA semi-final in Bali after a first-round success over Patty Schnyder , which she lost to Daniela Hantuchová .

In 2008, Cîrstea made her debut in the main draw of a Grand Slam tournament at the Australian Open , but lost to Ana Ivanović in the first round . In Charleston , in the second round against Anna Tschakwetadze, she achieved her first success against a player from the top 10. A little later, she won her first WTA title in doubles in Fez alongside Anastassija Pavlyuchenkova and her first match in the main draw in Paris Grand Slam tournament, benefiting from Anne Kremer's task ; in the second round she could not win a single game against Wiktoryja Asaranka . At the Summer Olympics in Beijing, she was eliminated from the singles in the first round against Shahar Peer . After losing two ITF finals in $ 100,000 tournaments in Cuneo and Athens , Cîrstea won her first WTA title at the Tashkent Open 2008 after beating Sabine Lisicki in the tiebreaker of the third set, followed by another semifinal at the end of the season in Luxembourg followed, in which she had to admit defeat Jelena Dementjewa . Then she won the doubles competition there together with Marina Eraković . In individual, she was able to end the season in the top 40 of the world rankings for the first time.

In 2009, Cîrstea initially had great problems confirming the good results from the previous year. After six defeats at the start, she reached the semi-finals in Marbella at the beginning of the clay court season before she was stopped by Carla Suárez Navarro . At the French Open , after victories over Alizé Cornet , Caroline Wozniacki and Jelena Janković, she advanced to the quarter-finals, which she lost to Samantha Stosur , and thus achieved her best Grand Slam result to date. Following two more third-round appearances at Wimbledon and the US Open, as well as moving into the semi-finals in Los Angeles after another victory over Wozniacki and against Agnieszka Radwańska , Cîrstea achieved her current best world ranking position with 23rd place. Although she ended the year with six losses in a row, she finished the season in the top 50 in the world for the second time in a row.

Form weakness and return to the top 30: 2010 to 2013

As in the previous season, Cîrstea found it difficult to find the rhythm of the match again in 2010. In contrast to 2009, however, in the entire 2010 season, she only managed to jump into a WTA semi-final in Oeiras , in which she was defeated without a chance against Arantxa Parra Santonja . At the same tournament she won her third WTA title in doubles with Anabel Medina Garrigues . In addition, she only survived the first round of the four Grand Slam tournaments in Melbourne and ended the season just below the top 100 in the world after a total of 14 first-round defeats. In the following season, Cîrstea worked her way up the ranking again via the ITF tour. With Cagnes-sur-Mer and Saint-Malo, she was able to win two tournaments in the $ 100,000 category and also won the tournament in the $ 50,000 category in Limoges at the end of the season, so that at the end of the year she was back in the top without participating in the semi-finals on the WTA Tour 60 in the world. In Dallas , she also won her fourth WTA doubles title alongside Alberta Brianti .

In 2012, Cîrstea showed improved form on the WTA Tour and immediately started the tournament at the Australian Open with a top 10 win over Samantha Stosur, in which she reached the third round. In Pattaya City and Barcelona she then reached the semifinals, where she lost to Marija Kirilenko and Dominika Cibulková . At Wimbledon , she beat another top 10 player, Li Na , in the second round . Thanks to two further semi-finals in Stanford and Guangzhou , she was able to finish the season in the top 30 in the world for the first time. At the Summer Olympics in London, she was eliminated from the singles in the first round against Flavia Pennetta ; in doubles she competed with Simona Halep and failed there too at the start to the later Olympic champions Venus and Serena Williams .

In the following season, Cîrstea was again in solid form and reached the round of 16 for the first time in Miami after a straight two-set win over Angelique Kerber . She moved into the third round at both the French Open and previously at the Australian Open . After she repeated her semi-final appearance from last year to Stanford , Cîrstea scored the best result of her career at the Rogers Cup in Toronto. On the way to the final, she beat four top 15 players in a row with Wozniacki, Janković, Petra Kvitová and Li Na, but was defeated in the final against Serena Williams without a chance. In the following week, she had her highest world ranking position with 21st place. At the end of the year, however, she was replaced by Simona Halep as the best-placed player in Romania, but she stayed in the top 30 for the second year in a row.

Shoulder injury and comeback: 2014 to 2016

The following year was disappointing for Cîrstea, who finished the 2014 season just under the top 100 in the world after only three quarter-finals and a third round in Paris . In 2015, she started the season with seven defeats in a row and, due to the resulting fall in the world rankings, had to compete again in the qualification at the French Open , where she failed in the final round and thus for the first time since 2008 the main draw of a Grand- Missed slam tournament. Due to the poor results, she started on the ITF tour again in the second half of the season, but was only able to win two matches there once and ended the year outside the top 200. Only later did it become known that a protracted shoulder injury was the main trigger for the poor performance of the Romanian. As a result, she was forced to change her service movement for the transition to the 2016 season.

The adjustments were immediately successful, because Cîrstea started in 2016 by winning a smaller ITF tournament in Bertioga and reaching the semi-finals at the WTA tournament in Rio de Janeiro , for which she had received a wildcard from the organizer . Also with a wildcard, she surprisingly made it into the last eight of a Premier Mandatory tournament for the first time in Madrid before she could be beaten by Dominika Cibulková in three sets. Even if she lost in the opening round of the three remaining Grand Slam tournaments of the year, she was back in the top 100 in the world at the end of the year due to good performances on the ITF tour.

Since 2017

In 2017, Cîrstea began reaching the round of 16 in the Australian Open for the first time , having last won a game in the main draw of a Grand Slam tournament in 2014. She then defended her quarter-final points from the previous year in Madrid , while she advanced to the semi-finals in Nuremberg . Due to another quarter-final at the Premier Mandatory tournament in Beijing , where she celebrated her last win against a top 10 player in the third round with Karolína Plíšková , she was in the top 40 for the first time since 2013 at the end of the season succeeded Cîrstea, ten years after she had won her first WTA title there, again the entry into the final of Tashkent , her first WTA final since Toronto 2013. In a hard-fought match of three sets, she finally lost to Alison Van Uytvanck . Nevertheless, she finished the year for the tenth time in her career among the top 100 players in the world rankings. In Lugano she also won her fifth and so far last WTA double title together with her compatriot Andreea Mitu .

In 2006 Cîrstea ran for the first time for the Romanian Fed Cup team . Since then, she has contested 29 singles and doubles for her country, of which she was able to win 16 (individual balance 11: 6). In 2018, she announced her retirement from the team on the grounds that she wanted to make room for the next generation of younger players.

Tournament victories

singles

No.	date	competition	category	Topping	Final opponent	Result
1.	October 30, 2005	Porto Santo	ITF $ 10,000	Hard court	Pauline Wong	6: 2, 7: 6 3
2.	February 19, 2006	Albufeira	ITF $ 10,000	Hard court	Chayenne Ewijk	6-0, 7-5
3.	May 14, 2006	Bucharest	ITF $ 10,000	sand	Simona-Iulia Matei	6: 2, 2: 6, 7: 5
4th	August 5, 2007	Bucharest	ITF $ 25,000	sand	Alexandra Dulgheru	6: 4, 6: 3
5.	October 5, 2008	Tashkent	WTA Tier IV	Hard court	Sabine Lisicki	2: 6, 6: 4, 7: 6 4
6th	May 8, 2011	Cagnes-sur-Mer	ITF $ 100,000 + H	sand	Pauline Parmentier	6: 7 5 , 6: 2, 6: 2
7th	September 25, 2011	Saint Malo	ITF $ 100,000 + H	sand	Sílvia Soler Espinosa	6: 2, 6: 2
8th.	October 23, 2011	Limoges	ITF $ 50,000	Hard court (hall)	Sofia Arvidsson	6: 2, 6: 2
9.	January 31, 2016	Bertioga	ITF $ 25,000	Hard court	Catalina Pella	6: 1, 6: 7 4 , 6: 3

Double

No.	date	competition	category	Topping	Partner	Final opponents	Result
1.	May 4, 2008	Fez	WTA Tier IV	sand	Anastassija Pavlyuchenkova	Alissa Kleibanova Ekaterina Makarova	6: 2, 6: 2
2.	October 26, 2008	Luxembourg	WTA Tier III	Hard court (hall)	Marina Eraković	Wera Duschewina Marija Korytzewa	2: 6, 6: 3, [10: 8]
3.	May 9, 2010	Oeiras	WTA International	sand	Anabel Medina Garrigues	Vitalia Dyachenko Aurélie Védy	6: 1, 7: 5
4th	August 27, 2011	Dallas	WTA International	Hard court	Alberta Brianti	Alizé Cornet Pauline Parmentier	7: 5, 6: 3
5.	April 14, 2019	Lugano	WTA International	sand	Andreea Mitu	Weronika Kudermetowa Galina Voskoboyeva	1: 6, 6: 2, [10: 8]

Web links

Commons : Sorana Cîrstea  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• WTA Profile of Sorana Cîrstea (English)
• ITF profile of Sorana Cîrstea (English)
• Fed Cup stats by Sorana Cîrstea (English)
• Sorana Cîrstea in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Sorana Cirstea: 'It's a' Privilege 'to be Healthy and Back on Court. In: tennis.com. March 23, 2017, accessed on July 13, 2020 . 
2. ↑ Cirstea Announces Retirement Fed Cup. In: fedcup.com. Retrieved July 13, 2020 .