{"id":670234,"date":"2026-05-14T10:57:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T10:57:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/670234\/"},"modified":"2026-05-14T10:57:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T10:57:10","slug":"sorana-cirsteas-final-tennis-season-and-the-right-moment-to-retire-from-sports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/670234\/","title":{"rendered":"Sorana C\u00eerstea\u2019s final tennis season and the right moment to retire from sports"},"content":{"rendered":"

ROME \u2014 Tennis retirements<\/a> are often painful. Whether it was Rafael Nadal<\/a>\u2019s agonizing final season in 2024, or Andy Murray<\/a> barely being able to take the court for his last Wimbledon in the same year, there have been numerous reminders of how hard it is to pick the right moment to say goodbye. Mic-drops, like Pete Sampras winning the 2002 U.S. Open, are rare; Serena<\/a> and Venus Williams<\/a> both avoided the word as much as they could, with the latter coming back from a hiatus to play at 45 and the former causing intrigue about whether she will, too.<\/p>\n

This year, Stan Wawrinka<\/a> and Ga\u00ebl Monfils<\/a> are in the middle of their farewell tours, and a third-round Australian Open run for Wawrinka aside, neither have made a major impact. Going out at the right time is almost impossible for a sportsperson, given the heft of a decision that has prompted the idea, referred to in Roger Federer<\/a>\u2019s \u201cTwelve Final Days\u201d documentary, that \u201cathletes die twice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sorana C\u00eerstea<\/a> is very much alive.<\/p>\n

The 36-year-old from Romania is having the time of her life in her valedictory season. Since announcing that 2026 will bring down the curtain on a 20-year career, C\u00eerstea has won a WTA Tour title in her home country at the Transylvania Open, beaten a world No. 1 for the first time, and this week climbed to a joint career-high ranking of No. 21, which she could surpass before the rankings update Monday.<\/p>\n

After beating Aryna Sabalenka at the Italian Open<\/a> to inflict the world No. 1\u2019s earliest tournament exit in 15 months, C\u00eerstea took out No. 13 seed Linda Noskov\u00e1, and then former French Open champion Je\u013cena Ostapenko<\/a>, to set up a semifinal against Coco Gauff<\/a>, the two-time Grand Slam champion. C\u00eerstea will relish the role of potential giantkiller again \u2014 she has 26 career wins against top-10 opposition, dating back to 2008.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m enjoying more and I\u2019m trying to do more stuff off-court, I\u2019m smiling a bit more,\u201d she said of the mindset behind her performances, in an interview at the Foro Italico last week.<\/p>\n

\u201cI might be more relaxed in practices and everything I do around it, but I\u2019m still working very hard because I\u2019m very competitive. Even if this is my last year, I still want to improve a lot of things.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCompetitive\u201d is probably an understatement. \u201cShe\u2019s a fighter,\u201d Sabalenka said during an interview with the WTA Tour after losing to C\u00eerstea Saturday.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s sad to see her leaving because I feel like she\u2019s one of those players that\u2019s fighting no matter what.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over the past 20 years, C\u00eerstea has picked up four WTA titles in singles and six in doubles, thanks in part to an excellent backhand and a solid game at the net. She has so far reached two major quarterfinals, at the French Open in 2009 and the U.S. Open in 2023, and she has been a consistent presence in the world\u2019s top 30. She has also developed a reputation as a player who refuses to give in.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince I was a kid, I\u2019ve always had this fire in me,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\"Sorana<\/p>\n

\n Sorana C\u00eerstea has equaled her career-high ranking in her last season on the WTA Tour. (Emmanuele Ciancaglini \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes it does get a little bit too intense and I wish I would be a little more relaxed, the way I am off court. Sometimes I manage, sometimes I don\u2019t. But I think it comes again to the fact that I\u2019m very competitive and very ambitious and I always want to win no matter who I play and also I\u2019m very tough on myself.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always want to do the things that I worked on and I don\u2019t give myself much room for a mistake. So maybe sometimes this mentality helped me but maybe it wasn\u2019t great in some moments.\u201d<\/p>\n

At January\u2019s Australian Open, C\u00eerstea complained about Naomi Osaka<\/a> saying \u201ccome on\u201d to herself between C\u00eerstea\u2019s serves. After Osaka won their second-round match, C\u00eerstea greeted her for the post-match handshake<\/a> by telling Osaka that she didn\u2019t know what fair play was. Osaka made a joke of the incident in her on-court interview, later apologizing in her news conference for making what she said were \u201cdisrespectful\u201d comments.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t like disrespecting people. That\u2019s not what I do,\u201d Osaka added.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat I didn\u2019t understand,\u201d C\u00eerstea said in Rome.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t too intense there. I just played my match. She stopped many, many times during the match and it was a cold exchange and then she carried on. \u2026 So from my side, there was nothing, nothing much there. She made a big deal out of it.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo no, from that point of view, I look back and I\u2019ve had a normal attitude and normal behavior. Sometimes I\u2019m talking when there is a really tight match and sometimes I get too intense on myself. Those are the moments, a little bit, where I wish I would be a little more laid-back.\u201d<\/p>\n

A representative for Osaka did not respond to a request for comment on C\u00eerstea\u2019s recollection of the incident, which caused a brief stir at the time. It has proven to be a mere footnote in their seasons, which for C\u00eerstea has led to her pushing even more of the world\u2019s best players to the brink.<\/p>\n

She led Gauff by a set and a break before succumbing at the Madrid Open last month, and a couple of tournaments before, she took world No. 7 Mirra Andreeva to a third set in the quarterfinals of the Upper Austria Ladies Linz Open. She is 11th in the live standings for ranking points won in 2026, 3 places short of qualifying for the season-ending WTA Tour Finals.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday in important moments I tried to play aggressive, I tried to play on my terms,\u201d she said in a news conference after beating Sabalenka, having lost the opening set 6-2. \u201cAgainst the top girls, you can just not play safe. They are not going to give it to you. You have to earn it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I\u2019m the happiest about is the way I played. I was really following the plan. Also, like I said, winning the match on my terms. This made me happy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ostapenko said ahead of their match, in which C\u00eerstea again stepped up when it mattered to win the second-set tiebreak 7-0, that the Romanian might have been liberated by knowing this is her final year on tour. \u201cI think (that) gives her a bit of freedom, in a good way, because you don\u2019t have that pressure that you have to defend points and stuff like this,\u201d Ostapenko told the WTA Tour.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s such a hard worker, too. She was injured a few times, and it\u2019s really hard to come back from injuries.\u201c<\/p>\n

C\u00eerstea, who has dealt with shoulder, leg, back, foot and wrist issues, tends to agree. \u201cI think in a way it freed me up a little bit, all those expectations just maybe went through the window because I didn\u2019t have to prove anything anymore,\u201d she said in a mixed zone Monday after beating Noskov\u00e1.<\/p>\n

There is one downside to having such a good season. It leads to constant questions about whether she will reconsider.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt like she could stay for longer,\u201d Sabalenka said Saturday. \u201cIt\u2019s her choice. We all respect that. I just wish her the best season to finish her career.\u201d<\/p>\n

C\u00eerstea has been consistent. Retirement is the plan, but a U-turn is not impossible. \u201cMy mind is quite set that at the end of the year, I want to retire,\u201d she said Saturday. \u201cWe will see how this year will go. A little door is there always open because you never know how things go in life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI want a family and I want also to do other things and I feel like I\u2019m a girl that can do much more than tennis,\u201d C\u00eerstea said during the interview in Rome.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are a lot of things that I wish to do after my career and I want to retire while I\u2019m still playing well, while I am still at the top of the game. I don\u2019t want to retire just because my ranking dropped and I don\u2019t get into tournaments.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of her final goals before retiring is to get into the world\u2019s top 20 for the first time. Beating Gauff Thursday would take her to No. 18, but she has few points to defend for the rest of clay-court season and then on the grass this summer. There is still time, for a player who said that the 2026 version of her would beat her younger self.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think also with ageing, you mature a lot, you have experience, you know how to handle moments a little bit better,\u201d C\u00eerstea said after beating Noskov\u00e1.<\/p>\n

\u201cOverall, you are a much better player. If you are healthy\u2026 also, in my case, I feel I\u2019m very, very good. I\u2019m way younger than what my passport says. I feel physically stronger and smarter on the court. I\u2019m a more complete player. I have more solutions, I\u2019m more consistent, I have better weapons.\u201d<\/p>\n

All this might persuade her to reconsider retiring. But should she resist the temptation, C\u00eerstea would provide rare evidence that tennis stars can bow out on a high.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ROME \u2014 Tennis retirements are often painful. Whether it was Rafael Nadal\u2019s agonizing final season in 2024, or…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":670235,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,85,747],"class_list":["post-670234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=670234"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670234\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/670235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=670234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=670234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=670234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}