Watch: Spicy Handshake with Osaka Marks End of Cirstea’s AO Career

Sorana Cirstea battled until the bitter end on Day 5 at the Australian Open. And when the dust settled after Naomi Osaka’s 6-3 4-6 6-2 victory over the Romanian, only the bitterness remained.

The pair had a heated moment at net, with Cirstea stopping to give the four-time major champion a piece of her mind.

Apparently Cirstea was miffed at the way Osaka was pumping herself up during the final set, particularly between first and second serves.

When asked what it took to get through the match, Osaka said: “Apparently a lot of come ons that she was angry about, but whatever… she’s a great player, I think this was her last Australian Open – sorry she was mad about it.”

After the match, Cirstea didn’t want to discuss the handshake.

“All good,” she said. “We just had a chat. Nothing big. Again, I don’t think that’s the main thing after tonight match. Again, it was a good match. She was much better than me towards the end. Yeah, she deserved the win. So that’s all I will say.

"I will not talk about that. Look, this is my last Australian Open. I have been playing for 20 years. It's more than going on than a five-second discussion at the end that I had with Naomi. This is my last Australian Open and so, yeah, I think the moments are bigger to me than to talk about a five-second chat I had with Naomi at the end."

35-year-old Cirstea, making her 18th Australian Open appearance and 66th at the majors, will retire at the end of the season.

Amongst active players, only V.Williams (95), Azarenka (69) and Pavlyuchenkova (67) have made more Grand Slam appearances than Cirstea.

“There are many happy memories,” Cirstea said of her Australian Open career, which featured two round of 16 appearances. “I always loved playing here. Again, it’s — I love tennis.

“For me I never thought I would play for such a long time. I’m very, very grateful to have had such a long career. Of course, a little bit disappointed about tonight. I thought I could have done things better, but only one player can win, and she managed to do that better at the end.”

Osaka will face Maddison Inglis in the third round.

She hit 38 winners to just 10 for Cirstea in the match, including a 16 to 2 advantage in the final set as she pulled way to her 28th career Australian Open victory against just seven losses.