Sorana Cîrstea

Sorana Mihaela Cîrstea (born 7 April 1990) is a Romanian professional tennis player.

She was the first Romanian to reach a WTA Tour final since Ruxandra Dragomir in June 2000.

During her run, she beat two players ranked inside the top 40.

Her best results include a title in the 2005 German Junior Open (Grade 1), a tournament in which she was finalist the year before, defeating Erika Zanchetta in three sets in the final, and a runner-up place in the 2006 Trofeo Bonfiglio (Grade A), where she lost in the final to compatriot Ioana Raluca Olaru after having defeated the top-ranked world junior player Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the semifinals.

She also made final appearances at the year-ending Grade-1 juniors tournaments, Eddie Herr International and Yucatán World Cup, in 2005 and 2006, and in the Opus Nottinghill International in 2006.

Cîrstea is a former ITF Junior Circuit top-ten player, reaching a highest combined ranking of No. 6 in 2006.

She turned professional in 2006 and ended the year at No. 353 in the WTA rankings.

In April 2007, she reached the final of the Budapest Grand Prix, a Tier-III event, as a qualifier.

All of her main draw matches went to three sets.

She beat Martina Müller in the second round, Eleni Daniilidou in the quarterfinals and Karin Knapp in the semifinals before losing to Gisela Dulko in the final.

The following month, Cîrstea played in the junior tournament of the 2007 French Open where she reached the doubles final with Alexa Glatch, losing to the third seeds Ksenia Milevskaya and Urszula Radwańska.

She competed for Romania in the women's singles at the 2008 Summer Olympics, losing in the first round to Shahar Pe'er.

In October 2008, Cîrstea won her first WTA title in Tashkent by defeating fourth seed and world No. 64, Sabine Lisicki, in three sets.

She also won her first two WTA titles in doubles that year.

At the end of 2008, she was No. 36 in the WTA singles rankings and the No. 1 Romanian, aged only 18 years.

Cîrstea began new season by losing to Dinara Safina at the Sydney International, in straight sets.

In the doubles tournament, she partnered Vera Dushevina and reached the second round, defeating Kuznetsova/Petrova before losing to Black/Huber.

At the Australian Open, she lost in the first singles round to Melinda Czink, but reached the second round of the doubles with Monica Niculescu, defeating Ditty/Gullickson and losing to Dechy/Santangelo.

Cîrstea lost in the first rounds of the Open GdF Suez and Dubai Championships, to Nathalie Dechy and Dominika Cibulková respectively.

In doubles, she again partnered Monica Niculescu in Suez, reaching the semifinals before injury forced them to lose in a walkover to Peschke/Raymond.

In Dubai, she partnered Arina Rodionova and they lost in the first round to Kirilenko/Radwańska.

Cîrstea received a bye in the first round at Indian Wells, but lost in the second to Elena Vesnina.

In the doubles tournament, she partnered Galina Voskoboeva and lost in the first round to Mattek-Sands/Washington.

Cîrstea finished her hardcourt season with a loss in the first round of the Miami Open to the qualifier Mariya Koryttseva.

Her doubles effort in Miami with Caroline Wozniacki also ended in the first round, with a loss to Kuznetsova/Mauresmo.

Her clay-court season began at the inaugural Andalucia Tennis Experience in Marbella.

She reached the semifinals, defeating Ioana Olaru, Andreja Klepač and Kaia Kanepi before losing to Carla Suárez Navarro.

In the doubles, she partnered Ioana Olaru and they reached the quarterfinals, before losing to Hercog/Ulirova.

At the Barcelona Ladies Open, Cîrstea lost in the first round of the singles tournament to Anastasiya Yakimova, but reached the finals of the doubles tournament with Andreja Klepač.

They defeated Grönefeld/Senoglu, Ani/Voráčová, and Hlaváčková/Hradecká, before falling to Vives/Sanchez in the final.

A week later, at Fes, Cîrstea again lost in the first round of the singles tournament, to Lourdes Domínguez Lino, and again reached the finals of the doubles tournament, with Maria Kirilenko.

In doubles, her career-high ranking is No. 35, which she reached on 9 March 2009.

Her biggest achievements include reaching the quarterfinals at the 2009 French Open, the quarterfinals at the 2023 US Open, and the final at the 2013 Rogers Cup.

Sorana Cîrstea was born to Mihai and Liliana in Bucharest.

She resides in Târgoviște, her parents' home town.

She has a younger brother, Mihnea.

Cîrstea was introduced to tennis at the age of four by her mother.

Sorana's father owns an ice cream factory in Târgoviște.

She has cited Steffi Graf and Roger Federer as her idols.

In singles, she achieved a career-high ranking of world No. 21 on 12 August 2013.