Irina-Camelia Begu

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Irina-Camelia Begu Tennis player
Irina-Camelia Begu
Irina-Camelia Begu at Wimbledon 2013
Nation: RomaniaRomania Romania
Birthday: 26th August 1990 (age 30)
Size: 181 cm
Weight: 67 kg
1st professional season: 2005
Playing hand: Right, two-handed backhand
Prize money: $ 5,273,522
singles
Career record: 401: 283
Career title: 4 WTA , 12 ITF
1 WTA Challenger
Highest ranking: 22 (August 22, 2016)
Current placement: 81
Grand Slam record
Double
Career record: 266: 169
Career title: 9 WTA, 19 ITF
Highest ranking: 22 (October 1, 2018)
Current placement: 116
Grand Slam record
Mixed
Grand Slam record
Last update of the infobox:
March 16, 2020
Sources: official player profiles at the ATP / WTA and ITF (see web links )

Irina-Camelia Begu (born August 26, 1990 in Bucharest ) is a Romanian tennis player .

Career

Begu's mother Steluța works for the Romanian government, her father Paul is an electrician. Her older brother is called Andrei. Her aunt Aura Wagner, who works as a tennis trainer, taught her to play tennis at the age of three. Until 2011 she was supervised by Daniel Dolbea, then by Marius Comănescu. She is currently without a coach.

Your favorite surface is the sand court. In the German Bundesliga she played for the TC Blau-Weiss Bocholt , with whom she became German team champion in 2012 and 2013 .

2010 Begu was nominated for the first time for the line-up of the Romanian Fed Cup team . Since then, she has played 25 singles and doubles for her country, of which she was able to win 15 (individual balance 8: 7).

Early years: 2005 to 2010

In 2005 Begu first appeared in smaller tournaments on the ITF Women's World Tennis Tour . As a junior, she took part in the youth competitions of the French Open and Wimbledon in 2007 , but was eliminated there, as in the following year at the French Open in the first round. Back on the ITF tour, she worked her way into the top 300 for the first time in the world rankings after a winning streak of 22 matches and a total of four titles, including a tournament in the $ 50,000 category in Jounieh . The improved position enabled Begu to compete in the qualifications of smaller WTA tournaments the following year . However, she only reached the main draw in Budapest as a lucky loser, where she lost to Shahar Peer in the first round . At the French Open 2009 , she made her debut in the qualification of a Grand Slam tournament for women and at least made it to the final round. In the subsequent qualifying tournaments of Wimbledon and US Open, she was already defeated at the beginning.

"Newcomer of the year" and establishment on the WTA tour: 2011 and 2012

After another year of transition in 2011, in which she could only win one ITF title in the $ 25,000 category in Podgorica , Begu made her first exclamation mark in 2011 by winning the $ 100,000 tournament in Cali from the qualification. At the tournament in Marbella she reached after a victory in the semifinals over Svetlana Kuznetsova completely surprisingly her first WTA final, in which she could only be stopped by Viktoria Asaranka . Thanks to her successes, Begu moved up to the top 100 in the world rankings and was allowed to compete in the main draw at the French Open for the first time. After beating Aravane Rezaï in the first round , she was clearly beaten by Kuznetsova in the following match. She then moved into a final at the WTA tournament in Budapest for the second time, which she lost in three sets to Roberta Vinci , before she could triumph at the ITF tournament in the $ 100,000 category in her hometown of Bucharest and in Dallas , after her first WTA peloton wins on hard court, once more advanced into the semifinals. Started outside the top 200 in the world, it ended the season in the top 40 in the world. At the end of the year Begu was chosen by the WTA as the second Romanian after Irina Spîrlea in 1994 as Newcomer of the Year .

In 2012, Begu had problems to confirm her good form from the previous year for a long time and slipped in the world rankings. She was only able to convince in doubles and won her first WTA title in Hobart at the side of her compatriot Monica Niculescu . In the tennis tournament of the Summer Olympics in London she lost again to Asarenka in the first round. She only reported back in the fall when she celebrated her first win against a top 10 player in the first round with the US Open, former world number one Caroline Wozniacki . Afterwards she won her first WTA individual title at the Tashkent Open 2012 after a two-set success in the final against Donna Vekić and reached the semi-finals in Linz as a lucky loser , so that this season, after initially weaker results, she finally finished confidently in the top 100 in the world .

Shoulder problems and comeback: 2013 and 2014

A weakness in form, triggered by shoulder problems that flared up again and again, meant that Begu fell significantly behind in the world rankings in 2013 despite a busy competition calendar. Only at the WTA tournament in Seoul could she win two games in a row. In doubles, she won her second WTA title in 's-Hertogenbosch with Anabel Medina Garrigues .

In 2014, she was therefore forced to fight her way back on the ITF tour. After two titles in Brazil in tournaments of the $ 25,000 category, she reached the semi-finals of a WTA tournament in Oeiras as a qualifier, where she was only defeated by the eventual winner Carla Suárez Navarro . She then received a wildcard for the main draw from the organizer of the Mutua Madrid Open and defeated Zhang Shuai in the first round before losing to Sabine Lisicki . By winning the title at the highly endowed ITF tournament in Contrexéville after winning the final over Kaia Kanepi and by surprisingly making it into the final of the Moscow Kremlin Cup , in which she was defeated by Anastassja Pavlyuchenkova in three sets, she was in the top for the third time in her career in 2013 Complete 50 in the world.

In addition, she won two other WTA titles in doubles: At the Rio Open together with María Irigoyen and in Seoul together with Lara Arruabarrena .

Career highlights: 2015 and 2016

While Begu was previously more of a specialist in smaller WTA tournaments, in 2015 she was able to convince for the first time in tournaments with more crowds. In early 2015, Begu reached the fourth round of a Grand Slam tournament for the first time at the Australian Open . After she was able to record her second top 10 win against Angelique Kerber in the opening round, she had to admit defeat to Eugenie Bouchard in three sets in the round of 16 . She reached the quarter-finals at the Family Circle Cup 2015 in Charleston and at the Premier Mandatory tournament in Madrid . In Rome , the French Open and Wimbledon , she made it to the third round. Furthermore, she was able to celebrate her second WTA individual title with the final victory over the qualifier Aljaksandra Sasnowitsch at the Korea Open 2015 in Seoul. In doubles, she played her first big final with Niculescu in Wuhan , which she lost to top seeded Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis .

In the following year, Begu was able to achieve a number of good results at renowned tournaments, especially on sand surfaces. In Charleston and Madrid she was again in the last eight, where she first lost to Angelique Kerber and Simona Halep , in Rome she even made it to the semi-finals against Serena Williams and the fourth round at the French Open for the first time. Placed in second place, she won her third WTA individual title in Florianópolis after beating Tímea Babos in the final and achieved her best world ranking position so far in the following week with 22nd place. At the subsequent Summer Olympics in Rio, she failed at the start of the individual competition to Nao Hibino , in doubles she was defeated at Niculescu's side, also in round one, to the three seeded duo Chan Hao-ching and Chan Yung-jan . Although Begu could not maintain her good form until the end of the season, she was in the top 30 in the world for the first time at the end of the year.

Since 2017

In the following years Begu did not succeed in repeating her career highlights of 2015 and 2016 individually. In 2017, at the beginning of the clay court season in Charleston , she reached the quarter-finals for the third time in a row, but early defeats followed in the major events that followed. It was only at her home tournament in Bucharest that she was able to free herself from her temporary form low by winning her fourth individual title after a victory in the final over Julia Görges and the double at Raluca Olaru's side . At the Kremlin Cup in Moscow she achieved another respectable success at the end of the season by making it into the semifinals, through which she was able to end the year in the top 50 in the world. In doubles she also won in Tianjin at the side of the former number one in the double world rankings Sara Errani ; it was the sixth WTA title for Begu in doubles.

From the Romanian’s point of view, 2018 got off to a strong start when she reached the singles semi-finals in Shenzhen at the start of the season, where she was eliminated by Simona Halep, with whom she subsequently won the doubles competition. After that, however, Begu struggled and only achieved one more semi-final in singles in Istanbul and the third round of the French Open . After an interim series of seven lost games in a row, she finally fell out of the top 50 in the world rankings, but was at least able to defend her title in doubles in Bucharest , this time alongside Andreea Mitu . On the other hand, things went well in the double competitions of the Grand Slam tournaments. In Melbourne , she advanced alongside Niculescu to the semi-finals, in which she lost to the two seeded Russians Jekaterina Makarowa and Jelena Wesnina . In Wimbledon , together with her compatriot Mihaela Buzărnescu, the quarter-finals ended for the third time after the Australian Open in 2012 and the French Open in 2017 .

In February 2019 she triumphed at the tournament in Hua Hin together with Niculescu for the last time in the double-finals of a WTA tournament. After due to continuing weak results the main draw entry into London and at the US Open in the qualification at a Grand Slam tournament had and there failed even for the first time in five years respectively in the second round, she could see the season due to an ITF finals at the tournament in Székesfehérvár nevertheless finishing in the top 100 in the world for the sixth time in a row.

At the beginning of 2020, Begu showed herself to be in better shape again with victory at the top ITF tournament in the $ 100,000 category in Cairo and her first title win at a competition in the WTA Challenger Series in Indian Wells , where she remained in better shape throughout the tournament.

Tournament victories

singles

No. date competition category Topping Final opponent Result
1. September 9, 2007 RomaniaRomania Brasov (1) ITF $ 10,000 sand RomaniaRomania Andreea Mitu 7: 6 2 , 6: 2
2. September 7, 2008 RomaniaRomaniaBrasov (2) ITF $ 10,000 sand RomaniaRomania Diana Enache 4: 6, 6: 4, 6: 1
3. September 14, 2008 HungaryHungary Budapest ITF $ 10,000 sand RomaniaRomania Laura-Ioana Andrei 7: 5, 6: 1
4th October 11, 2008 LebanonLebanon Jounieh ITF $ 50,000 sand BelarusBelarus Nastassja Jakimawa 6: 2, 6: 0
5. October 26, 2008 United KingdomUnited Kingdom Glasgow ITF $ 25,000 Hard court (hall) AustriaAustria Patricia Mayr 2: 6, 7: 5, 7: 6 1
6th September 19, 2010 MontenegroMontenegro Podgorica ITF $ 25,000 sand ItalyItaly Annalisa Bona 6: 1, 6: 1
7th February 13, 2011 ColombiaColombia Cali ITF $ 100,000 sand SpainSpain Laura Pous Tió 6: 3, 7: 6 1
8th. July 24, 2011 RomaniaRomania Bucharest ITF $ 100,000 sand SpainSpain Laura Pous Tió 6: 3, 7: 5
9. 15th September 2012 UzbekistanUzbekistan Tashkent WTA International Hard court CroatiaCroatia Donna Vekic 6: 4, 6: 4
10. March 9, 2014 BrazilBrazil Campinas ITF $ 25,000 sand RussiaRussia Alexandra Panova 6: 2, 6: 4
11. March 16, 2014 BrazilBrazil São Paulo ITF $ 25,000 sand RussiaRussia Alexandra Panova 7: 5, 4: 6, 6: 4
12. July 6, 2014 FranceFrance Contrexéville ITF $ 100,000 sand EstoniaEstonia Kaia Kanepi 6: 3, 6: 4
13. September 27, 2015 Korea SouthSouth Korea Seoul WTA International Hard court BelarusBelarus Aljaksandra Sasnovich 6: 3, 6: 1
14th 5th August 2016 BrazilBrazil Florianópolis WTA International sand HungaryHungary Tímea Babos 2: 6, 6: 4, 6: 3
15th 23rd July 2017 RomaniaRomania Bucharest WTA International sand GermanyGermany Julia Goerges 6: 3, 7: 5
16. February 16, 2020 EgyptEgypt Cairo ITF $ 100,000 Hard court UkraineUkraine Lessja Zurenko 6: 4, 3: 6, 6: 2
17th March 8, 2020 United StatesUnited States Indian Wells WTA Challenger Hard court JapanJapan Misaki Doi 6: 3, 6: 3

Double

No. date competition category Topping Partner Final opponents Result
1. July 1, 2006 RomaniaRomania Galați ITF $ 10,000 sand RomaniaRomania Carmen-Raluca Ţibuleac RomaniaRomania Bianca-Ioana Bonifate Diana Gae
RomaniaRomania 
6: 2, 7: 5
2. May 12, 2007 RomaniaRomania Bucharest ITF $ 10,000 sand RomaniaRomania Simona Halep RomaniaRomania Laura-Ioana Andrei Ioana Gaspar
RomaniaRomania 
6: 4, 6: 2
3. July 12, 2008 RomaniaRomania Bucharest ITF $ 10,000 sand RomaniaRomania Ioana Gaspar RomaniaRomania Mihaela Bunea Gabriela Niculescu
RomaniaRomania 
4: 6, 6: 3, [10: 3]
4th July 26, 2008 RomaniaRomania Hunedoara ITF $ 10,000 sand RomaniaRomania Elora Dabija SlovakiaSlovakia Katarína Poljaková Zuzana Zlochová
SlovakiaSlovakia 
7: 5, 6: 2
5. August 30, 2008 RomaniaRomania Bucharest ITF $ 10,000 sand RomaniaRomania Laura-Ioana Andrei UkraineUkraine Lyudmyla Kitschenok Nadija Kitschenok
UkraineUkraine 
6: 2, 3: 6, [10: 6]
6th September 6, 2008 RomaniaRomania Brașov ITF $ 10,000 sand RomaniaRomania Laura-Ioana Andrei RomaniaRomania Bianca Hîncu Cristina Stancu
RomaniaRomania 
6: 2, 6: 2
7th September 13, 2008 HungaryHungary Budapest ITF $ 10,000 sand RomaniaRomania Laura-Ioana Andrei BelgiumBelgium Davinia Lobbinger Efrat Mishor
IsraelIsrael 
6: 2, 6: 4
8th. May 9, 2009 RomaniaRomania Bucharest ITF $ 100,000 sand RomaniaRomania Simona Halep GermanyGermany Julia Görges Sandra Klemenschits
AustriaAustria 
2: 6, 6: 1, [12:10]
9. April 10, 2010 Korea SouthSouth Korea Incheon ITF $ 25,000 Hard court JapanJapan Erika Sema JapanJapan Misaki Doi Junri Namigata
JapanJapan 
6-0, 7-6 8
10. July 31, 2010 RomaniaRomania Bucharest ITF $ 75,000 sand RomaniaRomania Elena Bogdan ArgentinaArgentina María Irigoyen Florencia Molinero
ArgentinaArgentina 
6: 1, 6: 1
11. August 7, 2010 GermanyGermany Hechingen ITF $ 25,000 sand FranceFrance Anaïs Laurendon GermanyGermany Julia Schruff Erika Sema
JapanJapan
6: 2, 4: 6, [10: 8]
12. September 18, 2010 MontenegroMontenegro Podgorica ITF $ 25,000 sand RomaniaRomania Mihaela Buzărnescu RussiaRussia Valery Solovyova Maryna Sanewska
UkraineUkraine 
5: 7, 7: 5, [12:10]
13. September 25, 2010 RomaniaRomania Bucharest ITF $ 25,000 sand RomaniaRomania Elena Bogdan SpainSpain Leticia Costas Moreira Eva Fernández Brugués
SpainSpain 
6: 1, 6: 3
14th February 12, 2011 ColombiaColombia Cali ITF $ 100,000 sand RomaniaRomania Elena Bogdan RussiaRussia Ekaterina Iwanowa Kathrin Wörle
GermanyGermany 
2: 6, 7: 6 6 , [11: 9]
15th June 11, 2011 FranceFrance Marseille ITF $ 100,000 sand RussiaRussia Nina Bratchikova RomaniaRomaniaLaura-Ioana Andrei Mădălina Gojnea
RomaniaRomania 
6: 2, 6: 2
16. July 23, 2011 RomaniaRomania Bucharest ITF $ 100,000 sand RomaniaRomania Elena Bogdan ItalyItaly Maria Elena Camerin İpek Şenoğlu
TurkeyTurkey 
6: 7 1 , 7: 6 4 , [16:14]
17th January 14, 2012 AustraliaAustralia Hobart WTA International Hard court RomaniaRomania Monica Niculescu Chinese TaipeiChinese Taipei Chuang Chia-jung Marina Eraković
New ZealandNew Zealand 
6: 7 4 , 7: 6 4 , [10: 5]
18th July 21, 2012 RomaniaRomania Bucharest ITF $ 100,000 sand FranceFrance Alizé Cornet RomaniaRomaniaElena Bogdan Raluca Olaru
RomaniaRomania 
6: 2, 6: 0
19th June 21th 2013 NetherlandsNetherlands 's-Hertogenbosch WTA International race SpainSpain Anabel Medina Garrigues SlovakiaSlovakia Dominika Cibulková Arantxa Parra Santonja
SpainSpain 
4: 6, 7: 6 3 , [11: 9]
20th 17th February 2014 BrazilBrazil Rio de Janeiro WTA International sand ArgentinaArgentina María Irigoyen SwedenSweden Johanna Larsson Chanelle Scheepers
South AfricaSouth Africa 
6: 2, 6: 0
21st March 15, 2014 BrazilBrazil São Paulo ITF $ 25,000 sand RussiaRussia Alexandra Panova BoliviaBolivia María Fernanda Álvarez Terán María Irigoyen
ArgentinaArgentina
6: 4, 3: 6, [11: 9]
22nd 5th April 2014 ColombiaColombia Medellin ITF $ 50,000 sand ArgentinaArgentina María Irigoyen AustraliaAustralia Monique Adamczak Marina Shamayko
RussiaRussia 
6: 2, 7: 6 2
23. 20th September 2014 Korea SouthSouth Korea Seoul WTA International Hard court SpainSpain Lara Arruabarrena Vecino GermanyGermany Mona Barthel Mandy Minella
LuxembourgLuxembourg 
6: 3, 6: 3
24. 23rd July 2017 RomaniaRomania Bucharest WTA International sand RomaniaRomania Raluca Olaru BelgiumBelgium Elise Mertens Demi Schuurs
NetherlandsNetherlands 
6: 3, 6: 3
25th 15th October 2017 China People's RepublicPeople's Republic of China Tianjin WTA International Hard court ItalyItaly Sara Errani SloveniaSlovenia Dalila Jakupović Nina Stojanović
SerbiaSerbia 
6: 4, 6: 3
26th January 6, 2018 China People's RepublicPeople's Republic of China Shenzhen WTA International Hard court RomaniaRomania Simona Halep Czech RepublicCzech Republic Barbora Krejčíková Kateřina Siniaková
Czech RepublicCzech Republic 
1: 6, 6: 1, [10: 8]
27. July 22, 2018 RomaniaRomania Bucharest WTA International sand RomaniaRomania Andreea Mitu MontenegroMontenegro Danka Kovinić Maryna Sanewska
BelgiumBelgium
6: 3, 6: 4
28. 3rd February 2019 ThailandThailand Hua Hin WTA International Hard court RomaniaRomania Monica Niculescu RussiaRussia Anna Blinkowa Wang Yafan
China People's RepublicPeople's Republic of China 
2: 6, 6: 1, [12:10]

Performing in Grand Slam tournaments

singles

competition 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 Balance sheet Career
Australian Open - 1 2 1 AF 1 2 2 2 1 7: 9 AF
French Open 2 2 1 - 3 AF 1 3 3 11: 8 AF
Wimbledon 1 1 1 2 3 1 2 1 - 4: 8 3
US Open 1 2 1 2 1 1 1 2 - 3: 8 2

Double

competition 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 Balance sheet Career
Australian Open - VF AF 1 2 1 1 HF 2 1 11: 9 HF
French Open - 1 2 AF 2 - VF 2 1 8: 7 VF
Wimbledon 1 2 1 1 2 1 - VF AF 7: 8 VF
US Open 2 1 1 1 AF 1 1 2 - 4: 8 AF

Web links

Commons : Irina-Camelia Begu  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Begus profile at wtatennis.com ( Memento from April 7, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) (English)
  2. Tennis rocket Irina Begu from the world association WTA Highly decorated: Neubocholterin is Newcomer of the Year 2019. In: damen-tennisbundesliga.de. February 10, 2014, accessed July 10, 2020 .