Cirstea crowned champion in Cleveland, captures first hard-court singles title since 2008

When Sorana Cirstea defeated Sabine Lisicki to win the Tashkent Open 17 years ago, consider this snapshot in time:

• "High School Musical 3: Senior Year" was a couple of weeks away from release.
• The Detroit Shock, since relocated twice, had just secured their third WNBA title.
• Coco Gauff, now a two-time Grand Slam champion, was 4 years old.

That was the last time Cirstea won a singles title on a hard court — a drought that ended Saturday when she defeated Ann Li 6-2, 6-4 to claim the Tennis in the Land powered by Rocket title in Cleveland.

It is Cirstea’s third career Hologic WTA Tour singles title and her first since 2021. Earlier this year, she also won a WTA 1000 doubles title in Madrid with Anna Kalinskaya.

“It has been a wonderful week,” Cirstea said after the match. “From the first match of qualies, I felt the energy, I felt welcome, and I really loved the city and the vibe. You could see on the court how relaxed and how much I was enjoying (myself). I really wanted to stay as long as possible here, so I’m very happy that I managed to do that.”

Cirstea's path for the title stretched longer than most. Ranked No. 112 in the PIF WTA Rankings entering the week, she had to advance through qualifying to reach the main draw.

By week's end, she had picked up five Top 100 victories, including a straight sets win over No. 19 Liudmila Samsonova in the quarterfinals. Entering the final, Cirstea had not dropped a set in six matches between qualifying and the main draw — a streak she extended against Li.

The Romanian earned the first break of serve at 2-2 in the opening set and converted on her first opportunity of the match. Li had a chance to break back in the next game but failed to convert.

Cirstea faced only two more break points the rest of the way, the last while serving for the match in the second set.

But Cirstea felt no pressure, and it showed as she closed out the victory.

“It’s been a special week for me,” Cirstea said. “I really just came here to play some matches with absolutely zero expectations.”

Following her run to the title, Cirstea now faces a short turnaround ahead of the US Open, as does Li. Both players will have a couple of days off before their first-round matches in New York.

Li plays Rebecca Sramkova on Monday, while Cirstea will face Argentina’s Solana Sierra on Tuesday.

Danilina, Krunic win doubles title

In a final between the top two seeds, No. 1 seeds Anna Danilina and Aleksandra Krunic defeated No. 2 seeds Chan Hao-ching and Jiang Xinyu 7-6 (3), 6-4 to win the doubles title in Cleveland.

It’s the first title together for the reigning French Open finalists.

For Danilina, it’s her 11th career WTA doubles title and second of the season. Krunic also secured her second title of the year and now has eight career doubles titles.