Sorana Cîrstea reached the semifinals of the WTA 1000 tournament in Rome on Tuesday, beating Jelena Ostapenko 6-1, 7-6 to keep alive a run that has already changed her season. The 36-year-old moved to No. 21 in the live rankings after the win, matching the best ranking of her career.
Cîrstea took the first set in 26 minutes and finished the job in a second-set tiebreak to secure 175 additional points for reaching the last four. It was the eighth meeting between the two players, and Ostapenko’s frustration was visible late in the match as she called out “haide” while trying to stay in step with the Romanian’s pace.
The result mattered because it pushed Cîrstea back to the level she first reached in August 2013, ending a long wait for a return to No. 21. It also extended a striking stretch on Court Central at Foro Italico, where she had already beaten Aryna Sabalenka and Linda Noskova before facing Ostapenko. Against that backdrop, the win was not just another upset. It was the match that confirmed she belongs deep into the second week in Rome.
Cîrstea’s numbers in the match tell the rest of the story. She won 71 percent of her first-serve points, compared with 38 percent for Ostapenko, and kept the error count far lower, with four unforced errors to the Latvian’s 14. Adrian Cruciat’s coaching voice was part of the atmosphere as he urged her on point by point, pushing her to stay brave, keep the arm loose and continue in the same way.
The tension came in the second set, where Ostapenko led 5-3 and then 5-4 before Cîrstea pulled the match back and closed it in the tiebreak. That swing also underscored how different this week has become for her: she had never before reached the semifinals in Rome, and now she has done it by beating the world’s 27th-ranked player on Tuesday and backing it up with three straight wins on the tournament’s main stage.
She will face either Coco Gauff or Mirra Andreeva in the semifinals, with a place in the final now one step away. For Cîrstea, the climb back to No. 21 is no longer a historical footnote. It is a live ranking that reflects what she has done in Rome, and it gives her the chance to go even further before the week is over.
