sorana cirstea Romanian tennis player pictures

Cîrstea has a neat, controlled style that minimises mistakes.[3] According to the Tennis Spy, she does not appear to be fast around the court, but actually is deceptively quick covering the ground with her long strides and good reading of the game.[3] As a good doubles player, she is also a very solid volleyer, and also has solid groundstrokes.[3] Forehand and backhands are delivered with plenty of zip and punch, whipping through the ball quickly on both sides.[3] Cîrstea seems lacking a little when it comes to delivering the final blow: in her third–round defeat to Victoria Azarenka at the 2009 Wimbledon Championships, for example, she dominated the first set but was unable find the crucial points to wrap things up, and lost in a tie–break.[3] Despite her competence at the net, she often seems to lack the confidence to charge in and take control of the point.
Cîrstea was born to Mihai and Liliana in Bucharest ,[4] but currently resides in Târgovişte.[5] She also has a brother, Mihnea, five years her junior.[4] Cîrstea was introduced to tennis at age of four by mother, "My mum and dad have always followed tennis and they encouraged me to start playing the sport when I was young. They're the reason I started to play tennis and I guess they are the ones I should thank for getting me into it".[5] She cited Steffi Graf and Roger Federer as her idols.[5] Cîrstea speaks Romanian, English and Spanish, and is improving her French.[4] Her good friends on the WTA Tour include Caroline Wozniacki, Sabine Lisicki, Maria Kirilenko and Sania Mirza.


She is a former ITF Junior Circuit top-ten player, reaching her highest ranking of number six on June 26, 2006. Her best results include a title in the 2005 German Junior Open (Grade 1) defeating Erika Zanchetta 6–2 6–7 6–3 in the final, a tournament she was finalist the year before and a runner-up place in the 2006 Trofeo Bonfiglio (Grade A) where she lost in the final to her compatriot Ioana Raluca Olaru after having defeated the then-top ranked world junior player Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the semifinals. Cîrstea lost in the finals of the doubles tournament at the 2007 French Open, when she and Alexa Glatch lost 6–1, 6–4 to the third seeds, Ksenia Milevskaya and Urszula Radwańska. She also made final appearances at the year-ending ITF Grade 1 juniors tournaments Eddie Herr International and Yucatán World Cup in 2005 and 2006, and in the Opus Nottinghill International in 2006.


In April 2007, she reached the final of the Budapest Grand Prix, a Tier III event held in Budapest, Hungary, as a qualifier. During the tournament, all of her main draw matches were pushed to three sets. She beat Martina Müller in the second round, Eleni Daniilidou in the quarter-finals and Karin Knapp in the semi-finals before losing to Gisela Dulko in the final and won the first set, when Dulko won her first title by the scoreline of 6–7², 6–2, 6–2. By making it to the final, she became the first Romanian player to reach a Tour final since Ruxandra Dragomir in June 2000. During her run, she beat two players ranked inside the WTA top 40.
In 2008 in Tashkent, she won her first WTA tour title. She defeated Sabine Lisicki in the final.


Cîrstea began the year ranked 36th, losing to Dinara Safina at the Medibank International in Sydney 2–6 1–6. In the doubles tournament, she partnered with Vera Dushevina and reached the second round, defeating Kuznetsova/Petrova 6–2 3–6 10–6 and losing to Black/Huber 4–6 6–2 6–10. At the Australian Open, she lost in the first round of the singles tournament to Melinda Czink 2–6 2–6, but reached the second round of the doubles tournament with partner Monica Niculescu, defeating Ditty/Gullickson 6–3 2–6 6–3 and losing to Dechy/Santangelo 2–6 2–6.
As a singles player, Cîrstea lost in the first rounds of the 2009 Open GDF Suez and Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships, to Natalie Dechy and Dominika Cibulková respectively. In doubles, she again partnered with Monica Niculescu for the Open GDF Suez, reaching the semifinals of the tournament before injury forced them to lose in a walkover to Peschke/Raymond. In Dubai, she partnered with Arina Rodionova and lost in the first round to Kirilenko/Radwańska 5–7 4–6.
Cîrstea received a bye in the first round of the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, but lost in the second round to Elena Vesnina 5–7 6–2 6–3. In the doubles tournament, she partnered with Galina Voskoboeva, lost in the first round 2–6 2–6 to Matthek-Sands/Washington. Cîrstea finished her hardcourt season with a loss in the first round of the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami to qualifier Mariya Koryttseva, 2–6 1–6. Her doubles effort in Miami with Caroline Wozniacki also ended in the first round with a loss to Kuznetsova/Mauresmo, 4–6 6–4 10–8.


Cîrstea's clay season began at the inaugural Andalucia Tennis Experience in Marbella, Spain. She reached the semifinals, defeating Ioana Olaru 6–4 6–2, Andreja Klepač 4–6 6–1 6–1, and Kaia Kanepi 6–4 2–6 7–5 before losing to Carla Suárez Navarro 6–2 6–7(5) 6–2. In doubles, she partnered with Ioana Olaru and reached the quarterfinals before losing to Hercog/Ulirova 6–1 6–0.
At the Barcelona Ladies Open in April, Cîrstea lost in the first round of the singles tournament to Anastasiya Yakimova 7–6(2) 7–6(5), but reached the finals of the doubles tournament with her partner Andreja Klepač. They defeated Groenefeld/Senoglu, Ani/Voráčová and Hlaváčková/Hradecká before falling to Vives/Sanchez in the final 3–6 6–2 10–8. A week later, at the Fes tournament, Cîrstea again lost in the first round of the singles tournament, this time to Lourdes Domínguez Lino 6–3 6–4, and again reached the finals of the doubles tournament, this time with Maria Kirilenko. Cîrstea/Kirilenko defeated Fernandez-Brugues/Thorpe, Czink/Keothavong, and Hercog/Olaru before losing to Kleybanova/Makarova 6–3 2–6 10–8.
In May at the Estoril Open in Portugal, Cîrstea reached the quarterfinals of the singles tournament, defeating Kimiko Date Krumm and Maret Ani before falling to eventual champion Yanina Wickmayer 6–4 1–6 6–4. In doubles, she again partnered with Maria Kirilenko, defeating Ivanova/Yakimova before losing to Coin/Pelletier in the quarterfinals, 6–3 1–6 10–7. At the Madrid tournament, she lost in the first rounds of both the singles and doubles tournaments, falling to Alona Bondarenko 6–2 6–2 in the singles and partnering with Vladimíra Uhlířová in the doubles to lose to Makarova/Kudrayvtseva 2–6 7–6(2) 10–3.
Cîrstea then had her breakthrough tournament at the 2009 French Open. She began her campaign with wins over Carly Gullickson and an upset of the #21 seed Alizé Cornet. Having advanced to the third round of a Grand Slam for the first time, she defeated doubles partner Caroline Wozniacki, the #10 seed 7–6, 7–5. Cîrstea continued her unlikely run with a 3–6, 6–0, 9–7 upset over the #5 seeded Jelena Janković to advance to her first Grand Slam quarterfinal,[2] where she faced #30 seed Samantha Stosur, losing 6–1, 6–3. Her doubles effort with Wozniacki ended in the first round with a 4–6 4–6 loss to Pennetta/Kirilenko.
At the Ordina Open in the Netherlands, she defeated Monica Niculescu in the first round 5–7 6–3 6–3, but lost in second round to Yanina Wickmayer 4–6, 3–6. She paired with Dinara Safina for the doubles tournament, defeating Groenefeld/Niculescu in the first round and losing to Errani/Pennetta in the second round 7–6(4) 6–1. At the 2009 Wimbledon Championships, Cîrstea was seeded 28th. She defeated Edina Gallovits and Sania Mirza in the first two rounds but lost 6–7, 3–6 to #8 Victoria Azarenka in the third round. In doubles, she again partnered with Wozniacki to lose in the second round to Koryttseva/Poutchek 4–6 7–6(8) 6–4.