Cleveland Open: Cirstea defeats Li to claim the third title of her career

From qualifying to the title! Romanian Sorana Cirstea claimed victory in the final of the Cleveland tournament, convincingly defeating American Ann Li (6-2, 6-4) at the Jacobs Pavilion on Saturday evening.

It is the third WTA title of her career, and her first since 2021. With this triumph, Cîrstea has secured her seventh consecutive win. Throughout the entire week, she did not drop a single set.

Thanks to her victory in Cleveland, the Romanian will climb 41 spots in the WTA rankings to reach world No. 71. She will therefore return to the Top 100, just a few weeks after having dropped out of it.

I really wanted to stay here as long as possible

“It’s been a wonderful week,” Cîrstea said after the match. “From the very first qualifying match, I felt the energy, I felt welcomed, and I really loved the city and the atmosphere. You could see on court how relaxed I was and how much I was enjoying myself. I really wanted to stay here as long as possible, so I’m very happy I managed to do that.”

Cirstea, ranked No 138, beat Russian Anastasia Zakharova (6-1, 7-5), Russian Liudmila Samsonova, the top seed (6-4, 6-1), Swiss Jil Teichmann (6-1, 6-1) and Japanese Moyuka Uchijima (6-4, 6-1) ahead of her victory.

In the previous rounds of the Cleveland tournament, Li, ranked No 64, beat Chinese Xinyu Wang, the second seed (6-3, 5-7, 6-4), French qualifier Elsa Jacquemot (6-1, 5-7, 6-1), Iva Jovic (6-3, 2-6, 6-3) and Ukrainian Yuliia Starodubtseva (7-5, 6-3).