We next find our Champ on the Clay Court Swing. She plays the WTA 500, indoor Clay courts of Linz in Austria. And the first match is a 23 year old Austrian Wild Card, Sinja Kraus, lots of spirit and a good clay court player, she had her moments and hit a few wonderful winners but Sorana was locked in and playing the great tennis she has played all year, she was never in trouble at all in the impressive 6-3 6-3 victory. Today was Sorana’s 36 birthday and she celebrated in style with another slick win.

Our Champ’s next match was against Dalma Galfi who was on something of a horrid run, she had lost her last 5 matches before this tournament and it did not get any better when she faced the supreme Sorana after 21 minutes of dominance and incredible forehand winners Sorana found herself 5-0 up and Galfi sadly retired hurt, apparently picking up an injury during the match. Never the ideal way to win but Sorana was excellent for the short time she was on court and saved lots of energy for the fourthcoming quarter final match against the bright young teenage star, Mirra Andreeva.

Also this week, Sorana is having a good week in doubles with fellow veteran Shaui Zhang and the pair have made it through to the Semi Finals. Fellow Romanian, Gabi Ruse is also in the singles quarter finals and should both win their matches it will be a mouth watering all Romanian semi final, so it is an exciting day ahead of Romanian tennis!

Sadly our Champ fell to the red hot Mirra Andreeva in a long, gruelling match. She lost a tight first set on a tiebreak in just over an hour, started to run away with the second but even then a determined Andreeva wrestled the momentum back yet Sorana hung tough and was good value for the second set but in the final set was too much for Sorana and she did look very weary which is completely understandable, she’s 36 remember, playing an 18 year old in the Top Ten, never easy. It was a great effort and another outstanding week, also Sorana may have done fellow Romanian Gabi Ruse a favour as she faces the Russian next in the semi finals!

However Sorana’s wonderful week in Linz was not completely over as she eased to the Doubles Title with Shuai Zhang, playing together for the first time ever, they were superb all week, WTA 250 Rouen next…

On to Rouen in France and our Romanian Number One takes on Local favourite Fiona Ferro.  Sorana Cirstea  has never lost a set to Fiona in two meetings and you would think the world 29 would dispatch the world 216 easily yet we must throw caution to the wind!

The 29 year old French woman is having a fine year, 11 wins and 5 defeats so far and a very recent WTA 125 semi final run, she will fancy a hit at our Champ.

Sorana has looked sensational all season, yet in the three sets against Mirra Andreeva in the Linz Quarter finals she showed signs of slowing down, she is human remember and what she is doing at 36 years young is simply insane. She’s also in the Linz doubles final today, it will be a fast turnaround for Rouen.

A fully fit Sorana should nail this but there is a possibility this may be a rare match which catches her out and a shock win for Ferro in front of her home fans is not impossible, let’s hope not though!!!

What a truly magnificent final year our Champ is having….

Sorana Cirstea has looked so sharp and brilliant all year now, it’s her 21st and final year on tour and at the age of 36 she is playing the best tennis of her life. All the stats are pointing to this being her greatest year and she can confirm it by achieving a new career high ranking in the coming weeks, something she is so close to doing…

She did not do too much wrong today, in cruise control at a set and a double break in the second set she looked certain to fly into the last 16 but the French player, who is not having a bad year, upped her level when it really mattered, yes there was an element of Sorana being caught by suprise and getting a little agitated and rushed making her over press on the pressure points when twice serving for the match but Ferro really was excellent.

Lightning seemed to be striking twice in the final set as Sorana’s early advantage morphed into another Tiebreak and she came out of several of the extended points second best.

If Fiona did not dig deep against all the odds at 1-4 down in set two Sorana would have rolled this and been off the court in half the time but you have to give the French player so much credit for her fighting spirit

Sorana was good, I felt she moved really well, hands at the net were incredible and her return game was hot as Hell, sending some sizzlers back.

Did she get tight in the big moments? Well of course a little bit, she’s human and it’s an emotional season yet the Fiona Fightback came from nowhere and threw our champ off of her surfboard

However, it is not how you start it’s how you finish. I interviewed the wonderful Oana Simion last year and when talking about Sorana she said….

‘She plays every point like it’s the most important point of her life’

That is true Wolfy and that is why Sorana Cirstea won today, she did what she needed to do when she needed it and she did it calmly and brilliantly

Congratulations Champ, that was a phenomenonal one today, so proud of you 🥹❤️

After an opening thriller with a home favourite who came to life from nowhere like when you put your hand in a Bee’s Nest to get the honey 😮
Sorana faces another one which she should win on paper!

But if these matches were played on paper it would be a boring sport wouldn’t it?

China’s Xinyu Wang did win her opener against another home favourite the world number 241 veteran, Chloe Paquet which she desperately needed because before that she had lost her last four matches

Sorana Cirstea, in the form of her life should be far too much for her. The only question is what happened to Sorana yesterday when a routine kill suddenly turned into an epic three set marathon? Fiona Ferro made a banquet out of a snack and it would have taken a little extra out of our Champ with not much recovery time before the next round. Sorana has been sensational this year and looked super human  but remember she is human, 21 years on tour and now 36 years young she is also on her emotional Swansong playing everywhere for the final time, a lot is expected of her and despite playing with a beautiful freedom and expression she will expect a lot of herself too.

Sorana is the ultimate professional and there are much worse opponents she could have faced in the second round, this is an ideal match in many ways, as long as she has reset physically and mentally and can retain her signature focus and calmness then she wins this one in straight sets and potentially quickly too which will help her looking deeper towards the quarter finals. I have a curry night with work this evening so hopefully I do not miss the end 😮

The match with Wang only lasted a few games before Wang sadly retired injured but Sorana was looking very sharp up to the retirement. Our Champ was into her third quarter final of the year this was against Hungary’s Anna Bondar who is a tough cookie.

It was a very close first set which Sorana won on a tiebreak, there was one crazy point where Sorana stopped mid rally thinking her return was long of the baseline but there was no call, Bondar returned it and Sorana had to quickly spring back into action and remarkably won the point.

Sorana went up an early break in set two, she had countless opportunities to go up a double break in the fifth game but Bondar kept batting them off. Yet later in the set Sorana did nail the double to seal Bondar’s fate and fly into the semi finals, a super effort, she was incredible yet again.

Very sadly Sorana’s tournament ended prematurely as she was forced to withdraw from the semi finals at the eleventh hour due to a left calf injury. We wish her a speedy recovery, she has had another magnificent month and we are so proud of her ❤️