By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Wednesday March 29, 2023
Sorana Cirstea started working with coach Thomas Johansson in October of last year. Nearly six months later she says she is playing the best tennis of her life, and who could argue with her?
The Romanian has notched multiple Top 5 wins at the same event for the first time this week in Miami, and she’s reached the semifinals at a WTA 1000 event for the first time in nearly a decade, since 2013 Toronto.
Whatever she’s been doing with the former Australian Open champ, who also coached Maria Sakkari and David Goffin, among others, has clearly been working.
“I feel ecstatic, mostly for the work that I’ve been doing lately because I really worked very, very hard since October, since I started with Thomas Johansson,” Cirstea said after taking out World No.2 Aryna Sabelenka 6-4 6-4 on Wednesday in Miami.
“It’s been plenty of work – on the court and off the court – and there were a few months there, at Australia and in the Middle East, where results were not really coming. So you start to have some doubts, but I am at peace now that I know everything that we are working on is working and I am finding my game and I’m very happy about this result.”
The BIGGEST win of her career 💫
and yet to drop a set, @sorana_cirstea is levitating in Miami 🆙#MiamiOpen pic.twitter.com/A9FuPDpqSW
— wta (@WTA) March 29, 2023
Cirstea, currently ranked 74, already back in the Top 50 in the live rankings, and she’s playing like she could make a run at her career-high of No.21 in the WTA rankings. She’ll face either Petra Kvitova or Ekaterina Alexandrova in the semis.
Cirstea says that consistency is a new and improved element of her game under Johansson.
“I think I’ve always had the game,” she said in an interview on the Tennis Channel set. “I was an aggressive player, I was always dangerous but now and then I could be a bit erratic and against the top players you are not allowed to do that. You have to be from the beginning to the end, very solid, very aggressive, very put together. You’re not allowed to go away even for one game, because that can be the match.
“So definitely I think I found my peace of mind and of course the results give me confidence and I’m a bit more quiet on the court, but at the same time I’m fighting as hard as I can.”
9 – Sorana Cirstea is the first player ranked outside the top-50 to win 9+ main draw matches at the Sunshine Double (Indian Wells and Miami) in a single…
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