Sorana Cirstea was born on April 7, 1990, in Bucharest, Romania, to Mihai and Liliana, and she has a younger brother named Mihnea. Her mother introduced her to tennis at the age of 4. She has cited Steffi Graf and Roger Federer as her idols.
Cirstea was a very solid junior player. Her ranking peaked at No. 6, and that stage of her career included a win against the junior No. 1 at the time, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. The Romanian had a shock run to her maiden WTA final at the Budapest Grand Prix in April 2007 despite only turning 17 years old that month.
As a qualifier, she knocked out the second seed, Martina Muller, on her way to the final before falling to Gisela Dulko. Cirstea took the next step by claiming a maiden WTA title at the 2008 Tashkent Open. She had to win a very tight final to achieve this. Cirstea defeated Sabine Lisicki 2-6, 6-4, 7-6 to lift the trophy in Uzbekistan.
The 2009 Roland Garros saw Cirstea reach a first Grand Slam quarterfinal. That run included a win against the future Australian Open champion Caroline Wozniacki and a dramatic 3-6, 6-0, 9-7 fourth-round triumph against Jelena Jankovic. She lost the quarterfinal in straight sets to Samantha Stosur.
After a few slightly less successful years, Cirstea had a shock run to the final of the WTA 1000 event in Toronto. She beat Wozniacki and Jankovic once again, as well as Karolina Pliskova and Li Na. However, Serena Williams proved to be too much of a challenge, and Cirstea lost the final of the Canadian Open 2-6, 0-6.
Cirstea reached her first Grand Slam fourth round in nearly eight years at the 2017 Australian Open, losing to Garbine Muguruza at that stage. Two years later, she progressed to her first final since the 2013 Canadian Open at the Tashkent Open again, but she lost to Alison Van Uytvanck.
The Romanian had a very strong clay court season in 2021. Cirstea obtained her second WTA title at the Istanbul Cup by beating Elise Mertens 6-1, 7-6 in the final. The following month, she was the runner-up at the Internationaux de Strasbourg before making the fourth round at the 2021 French Open.
Cirstea had some good results in 2023. After making the quarterfinal in Indian Wells, she reached her first WTA 1000 semifinal in over ten years at the Miami Open, beating Aryna Sabalenka in the quarterfinal. Petra Kvitova ended her hopes of progressing to a second WTA 1000 final.
A few months later, Cirstea made her first Grand Slam quarterfinal in over 14 years at the 2023 US Open. That run included winning one of the best matches of the tournament against Elena Rybakina in the third round. She fell to Karolina Muchova in the quarterfinal.
