Tennis player Sorana Cîrstea
Sorana Cîrstea advances to the women's doubles quarterfinals of the WTA tournament in Madrid.
Florin Orban, 29.04.2025, 13:45
Two of the biggest tennis tournaments of the year are under way in Madrid, in both men’s and women’s tennis, with prizes amounting to around 16 million euros. Monday was the most complicated day so far, because of an electricity blackout that affected Spain and which led to matches being suspended. Some matches had been completed by that time, including that played by the Romanian-Russian pair Sorana Cîrstea and Anna Kalinskaia in the 8th finals of the women’s doubles against the Norwegian-Japanese pair Ulrikke Eikeri and Eri Hozumi, 7-5, 7-5. For her achievement to advance to the quarterfinals of the WTA tournament in Madrid, RRI has designated Sorana Cîrstea the athlete of the week.
In the singles competition in Madrid this year, Sorana Cîrstea did not get past the first round, as she lost her opening match against Hailey Baptiste of the US in three sets, 6-2, 5-7, 7-6. In the doubles, however, where she is paired with Russia’s Anna Kalinskaia, who is 9 years Cîrstea’s junior, the two eliminated the main seeds, Canada’s Gabriela Dabrowski and New Zealand’s Erin Routliffe, 6-3, 4-6, 10-7. In their next match, they went on to defeat Ulrikke Eikeri and Eri Hozumi and will next play the quarterfinals. On Wednesday, Sorana Cîrstea and Anna Kalinskaia will face the Czech-Danish pair Linda Noskova and Clara Tauson
Sorana Cîrstea was born in Târgovişte, in the south of Romania, on 7 April 1990. She became a professional tennis player in 2006, when she finished the year no. 348 in the world. She has won two WTA tournaments in her career, in 2008 in Tashkent, and 13 years later, in Istanbul. In August 2013 she reached her highest position, no. 21 in the women’s singles. This was followed by a difficult time for Cîrstea, with lots of physical problems, but she has recovered in recent years. According to the WTA website, she has earned almost 10 million dollars from tennis.
