I’m home. I’m writing from home.

I think this is the first article and maybe it will remain one of the few that I don’t write from the airport or from a cafe in a foreign city. It’s Sunday, maybe one of the few Sundays where I can rest and relax.

Normally, Sunday is either the day of the finals, or the day of the first round of qualifying draw or the accommodation day for the next tournament.

The most desired situation is, of course, the first one.

The last final I played was the first one at an ITF W25 tournament in September last year (the previous 20 were at W15 (10k)  tournaments).

I miss winning a tournament, I miss having that feeling again at the end of the week where you’re proud of everything you’ve accomplished along the way and when you have a confirmation that the work you’ve put in over time it was makes sense.

But until I’ll have the opportunity to write an article about my next tournament win – hopefully as soon as possible – I will continue the story of my beginnings in the professional circuit.

I remember playing my first final on the ITF Pro circuit at the age of 18. The tournament was organised in Galaţi, it was among the first tournaments to start the summer season in Romania. A tournament with prizes worth $10,000. I was ranked around the 1000th WTA place thanks to the three tournaments where I won WTA points the previous year because this is one of the conditions that must be met to be able to enter the WTA ranking. Either you score 3 times in 3 different tournaments, or you accumulate more than 10 WTA points from a single tournament.

I arrived in Galați, I checked the draw and saw that I was going to play with the 1st seed, Cristina Dinu. A very difficult match for a player at the begining of the career, like I was back then. Cristina had already a lot of experience, but was coming back from an injury.

I knew I had my chance in that match and if I could win I could go much further in the tournament. That’s what happened.
After a very close first set, I managed to win it and then the match. That was one of my first important victories. A victory that gave me confidence and, subsequently, propelled me to the final.
First career final. I was so nervous!

The final was also on TV and those close to me had specially come to watch me, my parents, my coach at the time, Alex Berbec. But my game was not up to expectations and neither was the result.

I lost the match, but I knew it was just the beginning and that the next final I would play would be mine. It was! After that week I became even more ambitious and the goal was to win a tournament. Said and done. It seems so simple now…

I won the first pro tournament in Iaşi two weeks after that first final, at the age of 18. I went up to 620 WTA at the end of that year.

Looking at my results from that age, from that year of 2014, I’m asking myself: what could I have done better in order to accomplish much more by now? Would more support from specialists, for a player at the beginning of her journey on the tour, helped? Why didn’t anyone see my potential back then?

With the experience and vision I have now, I am sure that if I had received constant help, I would have had more success.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not making excuses, I’m just analyzing coldly, with the eye formed after 10 years of career, as if I was another player.

Without financial support, it is difficult to find the resources to invest in a professional team that you need at that age. From the prize money gained at the tournaments, you only manage to cover the costs of the next weeks of training. But in order to pay a coach that would travel with you, you need help, the financial prize is not enough.

My parents always helped me. It was an enormous sacrifice for them, but insufficient for the rigors of the circuit. In order to have reached a higher ranking a few years ago, I would have needed financial support from the Federation, the club, possible sponsors.

I didn’t have it.

Although I must say that over time many coaches, physical trainers, etc. helped me with very small financial compensation, something that still happens today.

As a young player you can receive wild cards (invitations) to big tournaments in order to gain the experience or even to get to win some big matches.

I didn’t get them at the age of 18-19 when I could make a difference.

Only the last year, the organizers of the WTA 125 tournament in Iaşi gave me one, because there are some people who deeply understand the phenomenon and try to help as many players as possible; and in 2019 I received a wild card for the WTA 250 Bucharest qualifications after reaching the final of the pre-qualification tournament.

So, without a professional team and opportunities to play bigger tournaments you have no way to progress.

And as someone well said, the small tournaments on the ITF circuit are like a swamp: if you stay too long in it, you can’t escape anymore.
It’s a vicious circle from which only a few players are getting out, and lately there have been a few Romanians as well.

Everyone had their chance or created it. I haven’t had it yet, but I hope it will come, because everything happens at the right time.

Given the resources I could access so far, I am proud that I won 40 titles in the 79 finals I have played and that I am one of the only few players in my generation that it is still playing on the tour.

And I haven’t yet reached the end of my career!