Sorana Cîrstea, 36, reached the Roland-Garros quarter-finals, continuing a career-best season. Despite her strong form, the Romanian confirms her 2026 retirement plan is unchanged. She credits her success to playing with peace and enjoyment, free from pressure.
Three weeks ago in Rome, the day after Sorana Cîrstea had beaten the world No. 1 on clay at 36 – a result no woman had managed since 1975 – she was asked whether the result would change anything about her plan to retire at the end of 2026. She left the door open. “A little door is there always open, because you never know how things go in life,” she said. “We will see how this year will go.”
On Sunday at Roland-Garros, after she had reached the quarter-finals here for the first time since 2009 with a 6-3, 7-6(4) win over the Chinese qualifier Xiyu Wang, the journalist’s question circled back to the same place. She had won four more matches since Rome. She had reached her third career Grand Slam quarter-final, seventeen years after her first. She had not dropped a set all fortnight. Did the moment now look bigger than the plan?
It did not. “The decision hasn’t changed,” Cîrstea said. “I haven’t really thought about it. I’m just trying to take it week by week, and I’m not going to do anything different. I’m not going to try now to change things or put any pressure.”
The Romanian announced in December 2025 that 2026 would be her last season on tour, after twenty years as a professional. Since the announcement, she has won the Transylvania Open in Cluj-Napoca in February, made her top-20 debut in April, beaten Aryna Sabalenka in Rome at three years above any previous oldest, and now reached the second week of Roland-Garros having lost only nine games in four rounds, including a 6-0 6-0 defeat of Solana Sierra on Friday that made her the oldest player in the Open Era to win a Grand Slam main-draw match by double bagel.
The career-best season has continued to widen the gap between what she said in December and what the year is producing in May.
The journalist on Sunday named exactly that gap. “If you had to bet on yourself, are you going to keep on playing, or you will really decide to stop? It would be such a pity that you would stop.”
This year it’s going way better than I expected.
Cîrstea did not bite. “This year it’s going way better than I expected. I came into my last year wanting to go out on the front door of the sport, wanting to really do well. I didn’t really think it was going to go that well.” She paused. “Also, I’m really enjoying. I’m working hard, but also having fun. I’m not putting as much pressure. I’m not so hard on myself.” The decision, she repeated, was the same.
“I’ve made peace with everything,” she confirmed on Sunday, in a separate answer. “I’ve made peace with my past. I have no regrets for the last couple of years of my career. I gave really my 100%. I’m here because I worked really hard, and I belong to be here.”
Earlier in the same conference she described herself as different from the young player she once was. “When I was really young, it was a little bit of life or death every single match. I would win, I was very, very happy. I would lose, two days I would be crying. Now it’s a little bit – yes, I have so much passion for the sport, I have so much joy playing, but at the same time, it’s my job. Did I try my best today? Did I bring my 100%? That’s all I can ask.”
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