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Sorana Cirstea has retired after losing to a qualifier ranked outside the top 100. The Romanian previously announced that 2026 would be her final year on the professional tennis tour, and she enjoyed arguably the best season of her career. Cirstea picked up another WTA Tour title, reached the French Open quarter-finals, and hit a new career-high ranking of No. 15 in the world. But she said farewell on a sour note, suffering a one-sided 6-2 6-3 defeat to Alexandra Shubladze in the quarter-finals of the Hong Kong Tennis Open.
Cirstea came into the WTA 250 event as the top seed. But 21-year-old Shubladze, who came through qualifying to make her WTA Tour main-draw debut here, needed less than 90 minutes to clinch victory, saving seven of the eight break points she faced.
Unless she rethinks her decision to retire, the 6-2 6-3 defeat is the last match of Cirstea’s career. The 36-year-old has been asked several times this season whether she will continue playing, given the results she has enjoyed. But she seems to be sticking to her plan.
Speaking at the Italian Open in May, where she stunned then-world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka on her way to the semi-finals, Cirstea said: “Everyone has been asking me, like, ‘You cannot retire, you cannot retire!’
“And I mean, again, at this moment, my mind is set. But we will see what I can achieve this year and again, even if this is my last year, I still have a lot of goals and things to improve, and I go every day on the court with a plan.”
By beating Sabalenka in Rome, Cirstea became the oldest woman in the Open Era to record her first career win over a world No. 1. She followed it up by reaching the quarter-finals of the French Open, barely dropping games before she lost to eventual champion Mirra Andreeva.
Earlier this year, Cirstea also lifted a fourth career title on home soil at the Transylvania Open, beating Britain’s Emma Raducanu 6-0 6-2 in the final. The Romanian got to her career-high ranking of No. 15 on September 14, following a run to the second week of the US Open.
After taking out the top seed and sending Cirstea into retirement, Shubladze is through to a maiden tour-level semi-final in her first-ever WTA Tour main-draw appearance. The world No. 136 will face Claire Liu for a place in the championship match.
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