Irina-Camelia Begu

Irina-Camelia Begu (born 26 August 1990) is a Romanian tennis player. She reached a career-high WTA singles ranking of world No. 22, in August 2016. Two years later, she reached her highest ranking in doubles, also No. 22.

Begu has won six singles titles and nine doubles titles on the WTA Tour. She also has won three singles titles on the WTA Challenger Tour, with 12 singles and 19 doubles titles on the ITF Women's Circuit.

As a junior, she reached the semifinals of the 2007 Wimbledon Championships, partnering with Oksana Kalashnikova. Later, as a senior, she continued with Grand Slam doubles success. She reached the semifinal at the 2018 Australian Open and quarterfinals of the 2017 French Open and 2018 Wimbledon Championships. In singles, reaching the round of 16 has been her best Grand Slam result at the 2015 Australian Open, 2016 French Open and 2022 French Open.

In singles, she reached one Premier final, at the 2014 Kremlin Cup, but lost to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. Her other significant results in singles include two quarterfinals of the Premier Mandatory-level Madrid Open in 2015 and 2016 and semifinal of the Premier 5 Italian Open in 2016. In doubles, she has never won higher level tournament than International, but reached the final of the Premier-5 Wuhan Open in 2015, as well as two Premier-level finals at the Kremlin Cup in 2015 and Eastbourne International in 2018.

Early life and background Begu was born on 26 August 1990 in Bucharest. Her mother Steluţa is a civil servant, while her father Paul is an electrician. She has an older brother, Andrei. She started playing tennis when she was three-and-a-half years old as her aunt, former tennis player Aurelia Gheorghe, introduced her to the sport. At junior ages, she also did gymnastics and played handball. At the French Open, she made her Grand Slam main-draw debut. She recorded her first major win and lost to Svetlana Kuznetsova in the second round. In June, she returned to the ITF Circuit, where she reached the final of the 100k Open de Marseille, being defeated by Pauline Parmentier. Then, she returned to the WTA Tour and reached another final at the Hungarian Open, but lost to Roberta Vinci. After that, she won the 100k Bucharest event, defeating Laura Pous Tió in the final. She reached the semifinals of the Texas Open but lost to Sabine Lisicki. During the year, she progressed in the rankings, debuting in the top 100 in April and in the top 50 in July.

Begu continued to progress on the WTA Tour. In March, she reached the semifinal of the Mexican Open in Acapulco, but lost to Flavia Pennetta. In April, she reached the quarterfinals of the Morocco Open, where she also defeated former world No. 2, Svetlana Kuznetsova. In July, she reached another WTA Tour semifinal at the Palermo Ladies Open, losing to Sara Errani in straight sets. Despite falling early at the US Open, she made her first top-10 win, defeating world No. 9, Caroline Wozniacki, in the first round. In the following round, she lost to Sílvia Soler Espinosa. She did even better in September, when she won her first WTA Tour title, defeating Donna Vekić in the final. There, she also defeated top-50 players Alizé Cornet and Urszula Radwańska. She followed this with semifinal of the Linz Open, where Victoria Azarenka defeated her.

Doubles Begu started year of 2011 well, winning title at the 100k tournament in Cali, as her first doubles tournament of the year. In June 2011, she won another 100k title in Marseille. At the 2011 Wimbledon Championships, she made her Grand Slam doubles debut, but lost in the first round. In July 2011, she won her year-third 100k title in Bucharest. She started year with the title at the Hobart International, her first WTA Tour doubles title, partnered with Monica Niculescu. She followed this with quarterfinal of the Australian Open, again with Niculescu. Then, in April, she reached the final of the Morocco Open, but finished runners-up with Alexandra Cadanțu. In July, she won the 100k Bucharest event for the second year in-a-row. Begu finished year reaching the final at the Luxembourg Open. During these two seasons, she debuted in the top 100 in February 2011, then in the top 50 in late January 2012.

2013–14: From fall to improvement Singles

Unlike previous years, Begu did not made any progress during the season of 2013. She started year with first round loss at the Hobart International. After that, she reached only first or second round at every tournaments with the exception of the one quarterfinal at the Korea Open in September. There she defeated top 50 Julia Görges, but later lost to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. Weak results caused her dropping on the rankings and falling out the top 100 in the September.

Things got changed in the season of 2014. At the Australian Open, she was forced to play in the qualifications. She succeed to qualify, but then lost to Galina Voskoboeva. At her following participation, she reached quarterfinal of the Rio Open, losing there to Teliana Pereira. Nearly after that, in May, she reached semifinal of the Portugal Open in Oeiras, defeating top 30 Kaia Kanepi and top 50 Kurumi Nara, before she lost to top 20 player Carla Suárez Navarro. All these results, helped her to climbed from outside the top 120 to the top 50, at the end of the year. A month later, she reached the semifinal of the Rio Open, but lost to Anna Karolína Schmiedlová. At the Madrid Open, she reached her first Premier Mandatory quarterfinal, losing there to world No. 4, Petra Kvitová. She then reached third rounds at the Italian Open, French Open and Wimbledon. In September, she won WTA title at the Korea Open, defeating qualifier Aliaksandra Sasnovich in the final. She then made her second consecutive Madrid Open quarterfinal. She defeated world No. 4 Garbiñe Muguruza in the second round, but later lost to her compatriot, Simona Halep. She then reached her first Premier 5 semifinal at the Italian Open. There she made another top 10 win over Victoria Azarenka, but later lost to Serena Williams. At the French Open, she reached round of 16, after defeating two top 50 players, CoCo Vandeweghe and Annika Beck, before losing to Shelby Rogers. In August, she won title at the Brasil Tennis Cup by defeating Tímea Babos in the final. There she also defeated top 50 Monica Puig. Soon after that, also in August, she reached her career-highest singles ranking of place 22. In the semifinal, she defeated top 40 Carla Suárez Navarro. She then did not do well, but in October, she reached semifinal of the Premier-level Kremlin Cup, where she was defeated by Daria Kasatkina. Previously, in the second round, she defeated top 30 Anastasija Sevastova. Through whole of the year, she stayed in the top 70. She then start reaching only first or second rounds, before she reached quarterfinal of the Premier-level Charleston Open in April. There she lost to Daria Kasatkina. At the Madrid Open, she defeated world No. 5 Jeļena Ostapenko in the first round, but then lost to Maria Sharapova. At the French Open, she reached third round, after defeating top 30 Zhang Shuai. In the third-round match, she was defeated by world No. 7, Caroline Garcia.

In the early 2019, she reached quarterfinals of the Hobart International, but then lost to Anna Karolína Schmiedlová. In May, she fall out the top 100 for the first time since April 2014.

Begu won the $100k Cairo Open in February 2020 defeating Lesia Tsurenko in the final. This brought her back to the top 100. She continued her good form in March and won a title on the WTA 125 Indian Wells Challenger. She did not lose a set in the entire tournament and defeated Misaki Doi in the final. In August, she reached semifinals at the Prague Open, but then lost to compatriot Simona Halep. In the first round, she defeated top 50 player Anastasija Sevastova.

Doubles Begu started season of 2018 with a title at the Shenzhen Open, alongside Simona Halep. She done even better at the Australian Open, where she reached her first major semifinal, playing along Monica Niculescu. However, they lost to Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina. In late June, she reached the final of the Eastbourne International, but failed to win the title. She followed this up winning the title at the Bucharest Open with Andreea Mitu. In September 2018, she reached the final of the Tashkent Open with Raluca Olaru, but they lost to Olga Danilović and Tamara Zidanšek. In October 2018, she reached her career-high doubles ranking of 22. At Wimbledon, Begu lost in the third round to Jeļena Ostapenko, in three sets.

At the Palermo Ladies Open, Begu beat qualifier Marina Bassols Ribera, along with Océane Dodin, Diane Parry, Sara Sorribes Tormo, and Lucia Bronzetti, to win her first title in five years.

In September, she won the WTA 125 2022 Țiriac Foundation Trophy, defeating Réka Luca Jani in the final.

2023–2024: First WTA 1000 quarterfinal since 2016, Romanian No. 1 Begu hits a forehand in her semifinal at the 2024 Montreux Open.

At the 2023 Miami Open, she reached the second round saving five set points against Alexandra Eala. She lost to 23rd seed Zheng Qinwen. At the same tournament she reached the quarterfinals in doubles with Anhelina Kalinina as an alternate pair.

Seeded 31st at the 2023 Madrid Open, she reached the quarterfinals for the third time at this tournament, defeating Karolína Muchová, 33rd seed Shelby Rogers and 14th seed Liudmila Samsonova, before losing to ninth seed Maria Sakkari. As a result, she became the Romanian No. 1 female player ahead of Simona Halep, at world No. 27, on 8 May 2023.

A year later, when she entered the Madrid Open ranked No. 128 using protected ranking, after a six months hiatus from the WTA Tour, she defeated wildcard Linda Fruhvirtová in the first round, going out in round two against 18th seed Madison Keys Also using protected ranking at the next WTA 1000, the 2024 Italian Open, Begu reached the fourth round with wins over qualifier Rebeka Masarova, lucky loser Océane Dodin by retirement and 27th seed Elise Mertens, in straight sets, before losing to 13th seed Danielle Collins.

At the 2024 French Open, she overcame qualifier Julia Riera and 27th seed Linda Nosková. Her run was ended in the third round by Varvara Gracheva.

Begu won the 2024 Montreux Open, defeating Petra Marčinko in the final.

At the China Open, she recorded a first-round win over wildcard Ma Ye-Xin, before losing her next match to 17th seed Mirra Andreeva As a result, she returned to the top 100 in the WTA singles rankings.

Wins over wildcard Lucciana Pérez Alarcón, Emiliana Arango, eighth seed Anca Todoni and qualifier Tina Smith saw Begu reach the final at the 2024 WTA 125 Cali Open, where she defeated Veronika Erjavec to take the title.

National representation

Olympics Begu competed at the London Olympics in the women's singles, but lost in the first round to Victoria Azarenka. At the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio, she competed in the women's singles (losing in the first round to Nao Hibino), the women's doubles (with Monica Niculescu, they lost in the first round) and the mixed doubles (with Horia Tecău, reaching the quarterfinals).

Career statistics

Grand Slam performance timelines

Singles

Doubles

Awards 2011 WTA Newcomer of the Year