Here’s a novel idea: when facing Aryna Sabalenka, the world No 2 and one of the most powerful ball-strikers in the women’s game, step inside the baseline and rip the ball for all you’re worth. Such was the approach of Sorana Cirstea at the Miami Open as she pursued the biggest win of her career. There was much to recommend it.
Counter-intuitive? Most certainly. Effective? The 6-4, 6-3 victory that saw Cirstea advance to the semi-final of a WTA 1000 event for the first time in a decade – and only the second time in a career spanning 17 years – would suggest so.
At the age of 32, Cirstea is having a moment. The Romanian, ranked 74th but once as high as 21, is playing with a boldness and belief that always felt tantalisingly close, yet has only rarely come to fruition. In Indian Wells, where she reached the quarter-finals earlier this month, Cirstea eliminated Caroline Garcia, the world No 4 and WTA Finals champion. Drawn against the Frenchwoman again in Miami, she not only repeated her victory but also backed it up with notable wins over Karolina Muchova and Marketa Vondrousova.
It had been a fruitful period for Cirstea even before she faced down Sabalenka, the Australian Open champion, Indian Wells finalist and now the highest-ranked opponent she has ever beaten. Yet it was the manner of Cirstea’s win, rather than any statistical milestone, that most impressed. She has always had the weapons; the challenge, for a player with a history of injuries and inconsistency, has been how best to deploy them.
“I don’t know much about numbers and results, and I don’t keep track,” said Cirstea, who is already guaranteed to return to the brink of the top 40 next week and may yet climb considerably higher. “I think as a player you try to just focus more on the work rather than on the mathematical rankings and all that on paper.
“I think I have always been a good player. I have always been a dangerous player. I have always had a big game, but sometimes I lacked a bit of consistency. So I would have, let’s say, three, four months when I was playing really well, and then drop the level and then come back again.
“In these 10 years [since reaching the 2013 Canadian Open final, her best previous run at this level] I feel like I have had great results as well, and periods where I was playing very, very well. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to keep that level the whole year.
“It’s always a puzzle, and now all the pieces are starting to come together.”
A central figure in that process has been Thomas Johansson, the former Australian Open champion and world No 7, with whom Cirstea began working last October after a shoulder injury cut short her season. Their partnership has been less about forehands and backhands and more about what Cirstea calls “tennis IQ”: the ability to read the game, to be aware of the dynamics of court positioning, to ally shot-making ability with tactical clarity. All those qualities were in evidence against Sabalenka, given vocal reinforcement by the watchful Johansson.
The tone was set in the opening game, where the Belarusian double-faulted before Cirstea rifled a forehand return winner to bring up three break points. Cirstea’s willingness to take on her returns, particularly against the second serve, was to become a recurrent motif, instilling early doubts in the mind of an opponent who had gone unbroken in the previous two rounds. Elena Rybakina established the efficacy of the tactic in the Indian Wells final, where 10 double-faults played a major role in Sabalenka’s undoing, and Cirstea took a leaf straight out of the Kazakh’s playbook, ratcheting up the pressure on Sabalenka’s second ball. The cumulative pressure proved intolerable: three of Sabalenka’s six double-faults came on break points.
“I knew I had to come out swinging, and I had to be strong at the beginning, because once she gets that first few games, you know she’s going to be on a roll, she starts swinging more and more and it’s definitely difficult,” said Cirstea, who will face either Ekaterina Alexandrova or Petra Kvitova in the last four.
“The main thing was for me to be aggressive, not let her dictate the points.”
It was a remit Cirstea fulfilled to perfection, going toe-to-toe with Sabalenka in the baseline exchanges, refusing to give ground. The Belarusian, so accustomed to dictating, looked increasingly forlorn as the contest wore on, gesturing in frustration towards her coach, Anton Dubrov, as Cirstea stepped inside the baseline and fired hard, deep shots down the centre of the court, denying her angles. Sabalenka was not helped by hot, lively conditions that put control at a premium.
“It definitely wasn’t my best match,” Sabalenka acknowledged. “I was struggling a lot with the conditions, like heat. I felt like balls were flying too much and I couldn’t find control, controlling the ball.
“I was just trying to do my best till the last point. I just couldn’t adjust to these conditions, unfortunately.”
Sabalenka recovered one break, nailing a forehand approach shot to level the first set at 4-4, but was soon left swatting at the ground in frustration as she gifted the initiative back to Cirstea with another double-fault. A spate of backhand errors followed in the next game, Sabalenka waving her arms in exasperation as Cirstea calmly fired down an ace to seal the opening set.
Inevitably, a bathroom break followed. But not even a seven-minute delay could take Cirstea out of her stride. As the Romanian feasted on a second serve, slamming yet another winning return down the line, Sabalenka rolled her eyes heavenward. Predictably, a double-fault followed. By the time Cirstea completed a straightforward hold to consolidate the advantage, she had won 12 of the previous 15 points. At a set and a break down, the alarm bells were ringing for Sabalenka.
The Australian Open champion responded by dialling up the power. She held, broke with a searing backhand winner, and held again with the help of two aces. The impression that the tide might be turning hardened in the next game when Cirstea double-faulted after recovering from 0-30 down.
Instead, a pair of Cirstea aces sandwiched a wild backhand from Sabalenka. Further frustration quickly followed for the Belarusian, a poked backhand return winner from Cirstea bringing up another break point – and another double-fault. The Romanian would not be caught.
“I always believed that with this game I can do great things,” said Cirstea.
With that belief so richly vindicated over the past month, it will be fascinating to see where she goes from here.