Sorana Kirstea stunned the tennis world and reached the semi-finals of the tournament in Miami. After the victory over Aryna Sabalenko, the official WTA website presented the story of the Romanian, who will turn 33 on April 7.

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Sorana Kirstea, idol Steffi Graf and crossword puzzles

In a major feature on the Romanian, the WTA talks about Sorana’s passion and the impressive achievements she has achieved at the Florida event.

“Say Hi to Sorana Kirstea. Not being top notch, she showed the world how dangerous she can be when things are going well for her.

The semifinals in Miami already featured two big names from the circuit, Jessica Pegula and Olena Rybakina, ranked 3rd and 7th respectively in the world rankings. Two-time Wimbledon winner Petra Kvitova can be added to them. But there’s also WTA No. 74, the most unexpected presence in the ace vault, Soran Kirstea.

What can be said about the athlete from Romania, who will turn 33 in the first week of April, is that she started playing tennis at the age of 4. At the age of 14, he participated in his first competition under the auspices of the ITF in Bucharest, a few months before the birth of Cory Gauff (the great hope of American tennis, 6 WTA).

She’s a fan of Steffi Graf, and it’s probably no coincidence that the forehand is also her favorite. Movies, shopping, reading and crosswords are hobbies of the Romanian, whose favorite cities are London and New York.

Kirstya did some really special things in Florida on her way to the semi-finals. She has already set several important milestones on her US tour:

Kirstya defeated Sabalenko in minimal sets, inflicting only the third defeat of the season on the Belarusian. Arina (#2 in the world) is the highest-ranked player beaten by Sorana in her career;

With wins over Carolina Garcia and Aryna Sabalenka, Kirsta beat two WTA TOP-5 players in the same tournament for the first time in her career;

Kirstia is the first player outside the top 50 to win nine main draw matches at the Sunshine Double in one year.

This is the second WTA 1000 semifinal in her career. The first took place almost ten years ago in Toronto. Kirstea won that match against Li Na before losing to Serena Williams in the final. This gap became the second longest in history, after Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova’s 11 years between Cincinnati-2010 and Madrid-2021.

OK, one more – only Rybakina (12) has won more main draw matches at WTA 1000 events played this year than Kirstea and Barbora Krejcikova (10 each),” the WTA noted.

>> Sorana Kirstea, advantage over opponent in WTA semi-finals in Miami

Know:

• By advancing to the semifinals of the competition in Florida, Sorana secured a prize of $352,635 and 390 points in the WTA singles ranking.

• A very good move from the tournament in Florida will help Sorana to make an important jump in the world singles hierarchy, in WTA Live our athlete takes 41st place – a jump of 33 positions.

• Kirstya will fight for a place in the grand final of the tournament in Miami with the winner of the match between the Russian Kateryna Alexandrova (18 WTA) and the Czech Petra Kvitova (12 WTA).

>> Sorana Kirstea, a huge win with the second player in the world and age on the report

Sorana Kirstea, excellent performance at the Miami Open

I round: 7-6(6), 6-2 against Fernanda Contreras Gomez (179 WTA)

II round: 6-2, 6-3 against Caroline Garcia (4 WTA)

III round: 7-5, 6-1 against Karolina Muchova (55 WTA)

Optimal: 7-6(3), 6-4 against Marketa Vondrousova (103 WTA).

Quarters:6-4, 6-4 against Aryna Sabalenko (2 WTA).