Athlete of the Week – Tennis player Elena Gabriela Ruse
Important advance for a Romanian athlete in the world rankings of women's tennis.
Florin Orban, 17.06.2025, 13:45
Romania still has three representatives in the top 100 best tennis players in the world. One of them, Elena – Gabriela Ruse, managed to stand out last week, reaching the final of the WTA 250 tournament hosted by the Dutch city of s’-Hertogenbosch. Following this result, the Romanian went up 22 places in the world ranking, and Radio Romania International designated her Athlete of the Week.
IN s’-Hertogenbosch, the first grass tournament she has taken part in this year, Elena – Gabriela Ruse had to play in the qualifications to enter the main draw. In the first round, she defeated her fellow Romanian Mihaela Buzărnescu 6-1, 6-2, then, in the second round, Polish Katarzyna Kawa 6-2, 6-1. With the same score, she also won her main draw debut against Isis Louise van den Broek.
In the second round, she played against the Canadian athlete Carson Branstine, who came from the qualifiers and had previously defeated the main favorite, Russian Liudmila Samsonova. Gabriela won 6-4, 6-3. In the third round, Ruse defeated the Romanian-born Canadian Bianca Andreescu 6-2, 6-4. She lost the first set only in the semifinals, when she won 2-6, 6-4, 6-3 against Italian Elisabetta Cocciaretto. In the last match of the competition, however, she was defeated by the number 3 favorite, Belgian Elise Mertens, with 6-3, 7-6.
Elena-Gabriela Ruse was born on November 6, 1997, in Bucharest. She started playing tennis at the age of four and a half, at Dinamo Bucharest. She won only one WTA singles tournament in her career, namely in 2021, in Hamburg. On the same year, she was a finalist in Palermo. She also played in a WTA singles final, in Cluj, in 2023. In the WTA ranking, after the tournament in s’-Hertogenbosch, she climbed from position 80 to 58. Her highest was in May 2022, namely 51st place. She stood out more in women’s doubles, especially together with Ukrainian Marta Kostiuk. In the WTA doubles hierarchy, she ranks 60th. (EE)
