By Chris Oddo

Photo Credit: Leon Neal/ Getty

(July 14, 2012) -- The Bank of the West Classic in Stanford, California has featured star-studded draws for many years, but this year's edition is a little thinner due to the tournament's move to early July (to the week immediately after Wimbledon) to accommodate the Olympic calendar.

With only three top 20 players in the draw, compared with 8 last year, opportunities for lesser-known players to make a run at this prestigious event have presented themselves. That's fantastic news for 22-year-old world No. 43 Sorana Cirstea, who moved into the semifinals with a big upset over world No. 13 Dominika Cibulkova on Friday.

Cirstea, who reached a career-high ranking of 23 in the world at the age of 19, still packs the explosive game that had many believing she could become a future top 10 player--or even better-- back then.

But things have moved slowly for Cirstea, after her lone Grand Slam quarterfinal appearance at the 2009 French Open.

Even Cirstea admits that her career has taken a little bit longer to come together than she expected, but upon reaching her third semifinal of the year at Stanford, she's convinced that her time to shine could be near.

"I was 18 [years old], top 100, 19, 23 in the world," Cirstea told the press at Stanford yesterday. "Everything was coming really fast. I think I didn't realize at that moment probably, I took everything for granted.

Things took a turn for the worse for Cirstea when she suffered from a foot injury known as plantar fascitis in the summer of 2009. Though hobbled, she continued to compete as much as possible, but wins were hard to come by.

"That took me a little bit out of the game," said Cirstea. "When I came back I wasn't ready, I wasn't 100 percent mentally. It was like a domino, I was just like falling apart."

Things would get worse before they got better for Cirstea. She finished 2010 ranked at 95 in the world, a place where direct acceptance even into smaller draws would be a long shot. But time and patience have made the Romanian a stronger person--and player.

"It took me a while to realize that everyone has their own pace," said Cirstea yesterday. 

"Caroline [Wozniacki], she was there faster, she was No. 1... Kvitova, she won a Grand Slam. Everyone's career is different. My time is going to come."

Cirstea will face Serena Williams in tonight at Stanford. Win or lose, she's come a long way from her ranking of 60 in January, and from her season-ending ranking of 95 in 2010.

“If you work hard, if you believe, and if you have the game, it’s going to come,” says Cirstea. “Hard work, it’s always  paying off.”