Cirstea Upsets Mertens In Istanbul To End 13-Year Title Drought

Sorana Cirstea captured her first WTA title in 13 years Sunday beating top seed Elise Mertens 6-1, 7-6(3) in the Istanbul final.

The win was the 31-year-old’s second of her career with the only other coming back in 2008 at Tashkent where she beat Sabine Lisicki.

“I’m very, very happy for this trophy,” Cirstea said, in the trophy ceremony. “I did not expect it, to be honest, so probably I’m twice as glad.”

Cirstea, now ranked No. 67 but once in the Top 25, didn’t drop a set during the week. The win was her third over a Top 20 player in 2021 after wins over Petra Kvitova at the Australian Open and Belinda Bencic in a lead-up.

Mertens, who drops to 0-3 against the Romanian, has now lost three of her last four WTA finals. She is now 6-4 in WTA title matches.