{"id":620875,"date":"2026-06-04T14:11:28","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T14:11:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/620875\/"},"modified":"2026-06-04T14:11:28","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T14:11:28","slug":"tennis-world-pays-tribute-after-third-players-career-comes-to-end-with-loss-at-french-open","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/620875\/","title":{"rendered":"Tennis world pays tribute after third player’s career comes to end with loss at French Open"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tennis<\/a> fans and commentators are paying tribute to Sorana Cirstea<\/a> after the Romanian veteran played her final match at the French Open<\/a> before she retires. Cirstea went down 0-6 3-6 in just 57 minutes against Mirra Andreeva in the quarter-finals on Tuesday night.<\/p>\n

It marked the end of Cirstea\u2019s 19-year career at Roland Garros after she announced earlier this year that 2026 will be her final year. The 36-year-old enjoyed one of her finest performances at a grand slam this past week.<\/p>\n

\"Stan<\/p>\n

Sorana Cirstea (centre) joined Stan Wawrinka (L) and Gael Monfils (R) in playing her final match at the French Open. Image: Getty<\/p>\n

The quarter-final berth was just the third time in her career that she reached the last eight of a major, after the French Open in 2009 and US Open in 2023. She\u2019s won over $15 million in prize money throughout her career, with four titles on the WTA tour and a career-high ranking of World No.18 (her current mark).<\/p>\n

Remarkably, she\u2019s enjoying one of the best years of her career and is pushing for a berth at the year-ending WTA Finals. But when asked after her loss to Andreeva whether she\u2019s reconsidering retirement, she said she won\u2019t be backflipping.<\/p>\n

\"Sorana<\/p>\n

Sorana Cirstea bids farewell to Roland Garros.<\/p>\n

(DeFodi Images)<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sticking to my decision,\u201d she said. \u201cNothing changed in my mind. I\u2019m just very grateful how the year is going and the way I\u2019m playing. Overall, it was a very solid tournament.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the longevity of my career is one of the things I\u2019m most proud of. I never expected I would play above age 30 to be honest. I never thought I will have such a long career.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlso the way I fought, the way I evolved as a player but also as a person, through the years, through tennis. This sport has taught me so much. I\u2019m just very very blessed and very grateful. These are things I\u2019ll take with me for the rest of my life. No matter which area I go after my tennis career, I\u2019ll always cherish this sport and stay close to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Third player\u2019s career at French Open comes to end<\/p>\n

Cirstea became the third player to play their final French Open match at this year\u2019s tournament. Stan Wawrinka and Gael Monfils<\/a> are joining her in retirement at season\u2019s end, and both farewelled Roland Garros with losses in the first round last week.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere on Tuesday night, Marta Kostyuk set up a semi-final showdown with Andreeva after beating fellow Ukrainian Elina Svitolina 6-3 2-6 6-2. In the men\u2019s draw, Alexander Zverev and Jakub Mensik advanced to a semi-final clash by beating Rafael Jodar and Joao Fonseca respectively.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tennis fans and commentators are paying tribute to Sorana Cirstea after the Romanian veteran played her final match…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":620876,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[71689,7384,19265,8233,52196,101,10744,118,114981,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-620875","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-final-match","tag-french-open","tag-gael-monfils","tag-mirra-andreeva","tag-sorana-cirstea","tag-sports","tag-stan-wawrinka","tag-tennis","tag-tennis-career","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620875","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=620875"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620875\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/620876"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=620875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=620875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=620875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}