Quote For The Day

"I mean, of course it wasn't easy at the end. I was getting tight, and I started to feel it in my hamstring. I was just trying to jump around. I was looking on the other side, and I saw she was tired, also. So I knew it was also a little bit mental who is going to stay stronger,and I was just trying, you know, to keep the energy coming and just try to hit and keep the points shorter.

"I grew up in Romania, and I started tennis when I was four. That was a new thing for Romania, because it never happened before. I started playing because of Steffi Graf. I saw her on TV all the time. I mean, I always wanted to be professional. I always wanted to be like her since I was really young. I remember always like focusing and trying to take tennis serious. Now I'm at a level that honestly I was hoping one day, and I mean, it's good to be here."--Sorana Cirstea

She was a Daily Discovery at the 2008 Australian Open:

Feisty, fearless, fearsome, ferocious. Sorana Cirstea showed all of it in her straight set loss to Ana Ivanovic. And after bludgeoning her way to serving for the first set with backhands straight outta hell, Ivanovic had to hope for a crack in the Romanian's armor to avoid a three-set battle. Ana got her wish as the inexperienced 17-year-old playing her first Slam couldn't make a first serve and found herself on her back foot from the brute force of Ana's returns. If Sorana develops some mental toughness, and from the poise she exhibited in her Slam debut that's almost certain, she'll become a firecracker no one will want to play.

Didn't take long.