The Athlete of the Week
Tennis player Irina Begu
Florin Orban, 15.02.2022, 13:45
The most important tournament in womens tennis last week took place in Russia, namely the St. Petersburg Ladies Trophy, which is a WTA 500 competition worth almost 770 thousand dollars in prize money. Romanias Irina Begu also played in this competition, pulling off one of her best performances in a singles tournament in recent years to reach as far as the semifinals.
Irina Begu didnt lose a single set at the St. Petersburg tournament until she reached the semis. She defeated Chinas Shuai Zhang 6-3, 6-1 in the first round, 6th seed Petra Kvitova 6-4, 6-0 in the second round, and then another Czech player, Tereza Martincova, 6-4, 6-2, in the quarterfinals. Begus excellent run was halted in the semifinals by the first seed Maria Sakkari of Greece, in a match that lasted more than three hours. Sakkari eventually won against Begu 6-4, 6-7, 6-4, but lost the final to Estonias Anett Kontaveit. In St. Petersburg, Irina Begu earned 185 WTA points, climbing two places in the world ranking to reach 54.
Irina Begu, who will turn 32 next August, has won four WTA singles titles in her career: in Tashkent in 2012; in Seoul in 2015; in Florianopolis in 2016; and in Bucharest in 2017. She also has nine doubles titles: in Hobart, in 2012, together with Monica Niculescu; in s-Hertogenbosch, in 2013, together with Anabel Medina Garrigues; in Rio, in 2014, together with Maria Irigoyen and again in Seoul that year, together with Lara Arruabarrena; in Bucharest, in 2017, together with Raluca Olaru and in Tianjin, again in 2017 together with Sara Errani; in Shenzhen together with Simona Halep in 2018 and again that year in Bucharest together with Andreea Mitu; and at the Thailand Open in 2019 together with Monica Niculescu. (CM)
