January is often a favourite time of year for me in my capacity as a Tennis fan, I have been to Melbourne for the Australian Open once, way back in 2010 and it is my favourite of the Majors. Ever since, back in the UK I have often woken up in the small hours to watch tennis on TV from the other side of the world, it’s usually freezing in the middle of the night and it is quite the contrast watching tennis players in the burning Australia sun with ice towels snaked around their necks.

Sunday 4th January 2026, the soothing alarm clock song of ‘My Brave Friend’ by ‘The Manic Street Preachers’ goes off at 2 am, what a dear friend of mine (who we tragically lost a few years ago) would describe as a ‘disgusting hour’ he will be looking down on me getting up in the middle of the night to watch a tennis match and shaking his head. I’m fatigued and stunned and have no idea what the hell I am doing awake but within five minutes I remember I have woken up early to watch Sorana Cirstea’s first round match at the Brisbane International against the fellow veteran, Russian (or ‘No Flag’ as we have to refer to them now during the invasion of Ukraine) Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. This is the Romanian’s final season on tour, 35 years old and 20th year. In a year previous where fans of Romanian tennis have just lost the legendary Simona Halep we are now about to lose another special player from Romania. Sorana had a wonderful 2025, reaching the semi finals of Iasi, a home tournament and later winning her first singles title in four years at Cleaveland in America. Sorana was also at Halep’s last dance in Cluj that February and even though they never enjoyed the warmest of friendships over the years they shared a beautiful and emotional embrace after Simona announced her retirement on court minutes after her first round loss. Sorana knew then, especially after recent injuries her time was also nearing.

This year I will be charting Sorana Cirstea’s final voyage, month by month, following her journey, tournament by tournament, match by match and talking to fans, fellow players and people involved in tennis all about Sorana. ‘Sorana’s Swansong’ will take the form of this blog but also the Instagram page ‘WTA Romanian Never Surrender Hub’ we want to give this very special player and person, the best and most affectionate send off we possibly can ❤️🇷🇴

So back to Brisbane, Sori walks on court for the first time in 2026 as her farewell tour begins, I have my coffee and I am ready. The players meet the umpire at the net, usually when an umpire says ‘Any questions?’ both players say ‘No’ but in this case Sorana has a long exchange asking about towels, ever since Covid cleared and ball kids returned to the action rules have varied on towels from tournament to tournament about whether the Ball kids help with towels or if players get their own from the boxes. If I was a ball kid I think it would depend on the player, I would happily give Sorana Cirstea her towels, I mean I would happily die for Sorana but as for a player such as Polina Kudermetova who behaved disgracefully towards Miriam Bulgaru after she fell horribly during a tense match in Montreux in 2024 she can bloody well get her own, in fact I think Ball Kid Bobby would even make a point of picking her towel up, walking it to the opposite end of the court and dropping it on the floor. Anyway I digress, let’s talk about Sorana’s first match of the year shall we?

Once the extended inquest on towels concluded and after Sorana elected to serve the players began their warm up and we were under way. These two have played lots over the years and despite a close head to head 4-3 in favour of Sorana, with all of the recent matches going the distance, I had a confident feeling about this one, mainly due to Sorana’s recent form and I was right early on. The Romanian was electric, pure shot making from both wings, the cross court forehands fired into the far ad corner of the court were particularly delious. Sorana won the first set 6-3, everything looked magic, her serving, her movement and her stunning winners. Early in the second set a tired double fault from Pavlyuchenkova secured another break for Cirstea. It was not before long Sorana pounced on the Russian yet again and a gorgeous cross backhand bullet nailed the double break for 4-1. If it was a boxing match the referee would have had to stop it!!!

Sorana was sizzling in her next service game, pounding down the Aces. Pavlyuchenkova’s fate had seemed inevitable for a while, she limped through another service game checking out of the match with another double fault. Yet Sorana was excellent and looked as fresh as a daisy, the perfect start to her final year and a juicy encounter with Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko next!!!

So two mornings later, Sorana has had a rest day, not that she needed one after whizzing through round one. I’ve got my coffee, it’s a more respectable UK time this time, 6am. Sorana is to clash with Jelena Ostapenko, you would not want to be a tennis ball in this match!!!!

I’m really looking forward to this one and do not want to miss a point so I am going to be engulfed, I will try and jot down some highlights during some of the changeovers however. Ostapenko leads the Head to Head 2-4, Sorana won the most recent duel last year in Wuhan but was helped by an Ostapenko retirement in the second set. Her other win was at Wimbledon in 2023 I was there that day but watching another Romanian, Jaqueline Cristian who played at the same time. A good thing really I have a terrible record watching Sorana live 0-4 ☹️ she will not be happy to see me at Cluj next month 😯

Strange old match, some moments of excellence from both but no real rhythm, the conditions of wind and bright sunshine not helping either player and certainly contributing to Sorana’s low first serve percentage something which Ostapenko will kick herself over as she was not without chances to break. 6-2 to the Romanian in the opener and it was definitely a set Ostapenko lost more than Sorana won.

Ostapenko broke to love in the opener of set two but Sorana soon levelled early on and it continued to ebb and flow. Ostapenko did not look at her most powerful best and delivered a rather cagey performance, perhaps masking an injury. She kept holding on however, Sorana maximised her level late in the set giving herself a few chances to finish the Latvina off but could not get it done until she eventually pulled through on a tiebreak. Not as good as she was in the first round but she did not need to be, very professional performance and was dialled in mentally, lifting her level at the right times.

Sorana’s next big match is against the World Number One, Aryna Sabalenka, who our Champ actually beat in their last meeting at Miami 2023, returning the favour after Sabalenka beat Cirstea at Indian Wells the tournament before, their only other meeting. Sabalenka used to be all out attack with erratic serving but has impressively stabalised since becoming World Number One and has been very consistent. She is of course the favourite in this but Sorana’s tennis is so exciting at the moment and the release of her mental tension as she commits to enjoy her final year makes her so dangerous, I truly believe we will see an upset. This one is UK time 1am, the other end of the spectrum! Instead of waking up early you have to stay up late and try and stay awake but the excitement of this match will help. Really looking forward to this one! Before we dip into this match I want to pause to congratulate Sorana because as I write this three hours prior to kick off she is now the Romanian Number One in the Live Rankings, 35 years young, so proud of her 🥹

Sorana’s impressive Brisbane run has been ended by the World Number One, Aryna Sabalenka, 3-6 3-6.

A performance which our Champ should be very proud of despite the result. The loss was not much to do with anything Sori did wrong but very much more the calibre of her opponent who was at times simply unplayable, finding the lines with pinpoint accuracy and extreme power, time and time again. A few times I was nearly suprised she had lost to Nick Kyrgios in the Battle of the Sexes last month!!! 😯

Sori was locked in and professional throughout and landed a few punches herself, and a confidence boosting break to love was a nice highlight in the first set. As Sabalenka had won her opening match in 47 minutes Sorana did an amazing job just staying in the ring with her for two competitive sets. She just could not match the consistency and power of her red hot opponent. Overall Sorana’s own level was decent, I would argue she played better today than the second round win, the first serve numbers were a little low after she set the bar so high in her first match and there were a few loose unforced errors in the second set which damaged her prospects of a fightback but again it was such a supreme effort this week, it’s a shame she bumped into Sabalenka so early on as the way she has been playing you feel against any other opponent she may have gone further.

It was a super week for Sorana!

The farewell tour next moved to the Adalaide International, two strong wins in qualifying was all we got however, our Champ picked up a slight injury in the second match and withdrew from the main draw as a precaution, a wise move with the Australian Open looming. And Melbourne is where we are now. I have started a new job, working nights so watching Sori on my nights off is not as difficult as it was previously. Her first round is one of the final matches across the opening three days of the first Major of the year, the Happy Slam 🙂.

We have the impressive young German Eva Lys first, an exciting and passionate player with a bubbling personality, Sorana was one of two Romanians who Eva eliminated from their home tournament, the Transylvania Open at Cluj in 2023, and despite breaking Romanian hearts (twice) the local fans fell in love with Eva and cheered her all the way to the semis, not least was because of the character she showed on court and her constant sportsmanship to her opponents. At last year’s Australian Open she made it through as a lucky loser and went all the way to the fourth round, the year got better and better and she finished inside the Top 40. Her defeat of Sorana three years ago was their only meeting. Lys will be a dangerous prospect as sure as penguins love fish. If the Sorana Cirstea who turned up at Brisbane arrives on the court we should be okay but has that injury affected her groove? This one really could go either way, it’s a massive test for both. Eva will feel the pressure of defending last year’s points from her fairy tale run and Sori is playing the Australian Open for the final time and will want to stay as long as possible, as much as I want to see Sorana live at Cluj next month if she wants to win her first major tournament and have a rest after I will have no objections.

Sorana, understandably a little rusty from the beginning, Lys wins a first set 6-3 looking much sharper. She is quickly up a break in the second but Cirstea gets better and better, she starts to turn the match and wins the second set 6-4. By now it’s as close as kittens and some quality ball striking from both players.

What an incredible match, that third set was the gift that kept giving. They exchanged breaks in a high quality battle, both players putting their hearts and souls on the court. Margins in the end but if you had to pick a deciding factor you might say Sorana’s incredible focus. I have been watching her for 20 years and this is the first time she had made me cry. 🥹

Absolutely brilliant!!!

Sori’s next round is against Naomi Osaka. This one is difficult, I have walked home after a 12 hour night shift, I’m eating carrots and drinking coffee and trying so hard to stay awake. It’s going to a final set!!!

Sadly my mind and body fail me in the end and as Sorana goes an early break down in set three I have no choice but to go to bed, I can no longer stay awake after my shift. Sorana would go on to lose the match, there is controversy, it looks like Osaka is saying ‘Come on’ between the first and second serve of Sorana which is a clear hindrance, it is however the umpire’s job to declare this but ruled it not significant, Sori argues with the umpire and gives Osaka a bit of a talking to at the net. Osaka gives a clumsy on court interview but is clearly upset, there was no deliberate malace, there was fault by all parties and the media and social media lapped it up. It was a bit of a sour end for our Sorana’s month but it is an emotional sport as especially with it being Sorana’s last Australian Open. Sorana is an intelligent and lovely person, this will not linger and she will move on her with journey.

She should be very proud of her January, she was magnificent. Next month she is returning to her home tournament, The Transylvania Open at Cluj with Bad Luck Bobby sat in the front row! It’s going to be interesting.

Congratulations on a super start to the year Champ, see you soon ♥️