Sorana Cirstea makes historic Top 20 debut on WTA rankings after semifinal run in Rome

During the off-season, Sorana Cirstea announced that this would be the last year of her professional career.

But it’s also turning out to be the best year of her career.

The Romanian breaks into the Top 20 of the WTA rankings for the first time today, jumping from No. 27 to a new career-high of No. 18 after her run to the semifinals of the WTA 1000 event in Rome.

At 36, she made history in the Italian capital, becoming the oldest women’s player ever to defeat a reigning WTA No. 1 for the first time with her third-round victory over Aryna Sabalenka.

And now she makes even more history, becoming the oldest women’s player to make their Top 20 debut in WTA rankings history, which dates all the way back to November 1975.

Cirstea had been one spot away from breaking into the Top 20 before, going as high as No. 21 during the 2013 and 2014 seasons. She also spent time in the Top 25 in 2009, 2022, 2023 and 2024.

But over the last 10 months she’s been on the rise again, going from outside the Top 100 last August to No. 44 by the 2025 year-end rankings, and going from strength to strength this year, her 2026 highlights so far being her fourth career WTA title (and first on home soil) in Cluj-Napoca in February, and last week reaching the fourth WTA 1000 semifinal of her career in Rome.

She's actually No. 11 on the year-to-date race standings.

Having missed Roland Garros last year due to an ankle injury, she has no points to defend at the clay-court major this year, a huge opportunity to keep building on her ranking rise.

In fact, she didn’t win a match on grass last year either, as she was starting to find her footing again on the tour. Without any ranking points to defend until July, how high can she go?