Sorana Cîrstea's coach, about the withdrawal and the anticipated strategy with Ostapenko: “We knew!”

These are memorable days for Sorana Cîrstea. Our player qualified for the semifinals of the tournament in Rome and climbed, in the real ranking, to the 21st place in the worldequaling his career-best ranking.

Adrian Cruciat (43 years old), Sorana's coach, warmly commented on his player's performance. Below, the dialogue held on the “Liga DigiSport” show.

Adruan Cruciat, Sorana Cîrstea's coach: “I don't think he has thought about whether he will change his mind about retiring”

moderator: Sorana plays such good tennis. What is the secret? We have been speculating on the fact that he was released with the announcement that he will retire at the end of this season.
Adrian Crusader: I couldn't say. On the contrary, I think the pressure is even greater, because the time is shorter to achieve the goals he always had. There is no secret. Her success, her progress this season is primarily due to the fact that for a year we have been approaching every day very organically. We try to put together good days, to work, both on training days and on match days, not to think too much about the results and it's a harder thing to do than it seems. But Sorana made it this year. Somehow, good things add up and it shows in her development on the field.

– He made this announcement, but after beating Sabalenka I saw that his promise was taken away that if he won this tournament he would continue.
– I don't think he thought about this. She was faced with that question momentarily. We avoid thinking, we try to do our job well, to be professional, to appreciate the good things we do. He enjoys and works very hard.

– She brilliantly resisted an all-out attack by Ostapenko.
– Yes, Ostapenko is a player who attacks at risk and when you meet her in the quarters she already has a rhythm, a certain confidence, an accommodation with the surface and playing conditions and is clearly much more dangerous than in the first rounds. I knew such moments could come, we have prepared very well this scenario in which Ostapenko can play two or three games exceptionally welland Sorana knew what she had to do at that moment. What's more, he managed to get things ready in advance.

– The next opponent will be decided tonight, Coco Gauff or Andreeva. Can it be discussed in such a phase of preferences, to face?
– No, by no means. All the players left on the board are from the TOP 10, the best, all Grand Slam winners. They all want to get in good shape before Roland Garros. I'm just glad that Sorana managed to sneak in between them too. We will see the match, we will see who the opponent will be and tomorrow we will try to prepare well for the semi-final.

Indeed, all 6 players left in the draw are world top 10 players, but 3 of them, Mirra Andreeva, Elina Svitolina and Jessica Pegula, have never won a Grand Slam tournament.

Andreeva has a semifinal at Roland Garros 2024, Pegula a final also in Paris in 2022, respectively a semifinal at the Australian Open in 2023, and Elina Svitolina 4 semifinals, at the US Open in 2019, Wimbledon in 2019 and 2023, respectively the Australian Open in 2026.