Sorana Cirstea Slams 'Unplayable Court' at Italian Open in Rome

| by Balasz Virag

Sorana Cirstea was very unhappy with the conditions at the 2023 Italian Open stopping the match after 3 games to call for the supervisor.

A rather unproblematic player for the most part, Cirstea surprised many by stopping play after three games in the first of her Italian Open match against Jelena Ostapenko on the Grand Stand Arena. The problem for Cirstea was the court and the conditions which she felt were not good enough to continue playing the match.

After losing her serve early in the opening set Cirstea stopped the match complaining to the umpire and demanding to see the supervisor due to the unplayable conditions. The umpire seemed sympathetic to Cirstea demand's agreeing with some very bad bounces at the back of the court. Cirstea though opined that it was all over the court.

It is very bad. No but this is the condition of the court. No all over the court it is breaking. I don't understand how they make us play on this court. It is unplayable.

Cirstea to umpire
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The result of all of that was that the match continued and Ostapenko took that early advantage and won the first set. Cirstea got used to the condition a bit better as the match went along winning the second set though Ostapenko would still pull out the win in the final set.

Clay courts can at times be in a rather rough shape especially with the current weather conditions in Rome giving organisers a lot of trouble. There has been a lot of rain recently and keeping the courts smooth is a bit of a challenge.

It's certainly not a great look after last year's ATP event in Napoli faced similar issues with players refusing to play due to the poor conditions. That court was a hard court and it needed to be redone after the start of the event which is quite unprecedented.

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