Sorana Cirstea announces she'll retire from tennis after 2026 season

Sorana Cirstea's 20th WTA season will be her last. The Romanian announced her intention to retire from the sport at the end of next year in a post to her social media channels on Saturday.

"I love tennis. I love the discipline, the routines, the hard work. The competition and the adrenaline fuel my soul,” Cirstea wrote. "But like everything in life, it must come to an end."

"I never expected to compete for such a long time, but the last couple of years have been my happiest on court and they just kept me going," she continued. "That being said, I have now decided that 2026 will be my last year on tour."

Cirstea, now 35, enjoyed a renaissance in 2025 after a lengthy battle with plantar fasciitis that required surgery. She won her third career WTA singles title in Cleveland before the US Open, and also partnered Anna Kalinskaya to win the WTA 1000 Mutua Madrid Open in doubles.

Cirstea has been a near-ubiquitous WTA presence for nearly two decades, finishing in the Top 100 in all but one year since 2008. Her big-stage breakthrough came at Roland Garros in 2009, where she reached the quarterfinals as an unseeded 19-year-old. She matched that achievement at the 2023 US Open at age 33.

"When you love something so much, it’s not easy to say ‘goodbye,’ Cirstea said. "For now though this is not a farewell, but a ‘see you one more time.’

"I still have lots of things I want to improve, I have goals and ambitions, so I hope to be able to achieve some of them next year and finish this wonderful career on a high note and on my terms."

The Romanian reached a career-high singles ranking of No. 21 in August of 2013, after reaching her first WTA 1000 final in Toronto. She ended 2025 ranked No. 43.