Athlete of the Week – Tennis Player Irina Begu

Irina Begu won the doubles finals at the WTA tournament in Rio de Janeiro.

Florin Orban, 25.02.2014, 13:33

The tennis pair made up of Romanian Irina Begu and Maria Irigoyen of Argentina won last week’s doubles event at the WTA tournament in Rio de Janeiro, totaling 250,000 dollars in prize money. In the finals, Begu and Irigoyen outperformed the pair made up of Johanna Larsson of Sweden and Chanelle Scheepers of South Africa.

For her remarkable achievement, we have designated Irina Begu Athlete of the Week on RRI.

Irina Begu was born in Bucharest on August 25, 1990. The first notable achievement in her career came early on, in 2006, when she won the European title in the under-16 competition. In the years that followed she gradually improved her WTA ranking. 2011 was a good year for her, as she reached the all-time best ranking of her career, 38th in WTA standings.

After 2011 Irina Begu focused more on doubles competitions. She made it to several WTA tournaments and won the 2012 tournament in Hobart alongside Romanian Monica Niculescu, as well as the 2013 tournament in ‘s-Hertogenbosch where she teamed up with Anabel Medina Garrigues of Spain. In 2012 she lost the finals in Fes alongside Romanian Alexandra Cadantu and in Luxembourg with her teammate Monica Niculescu.

Following her win in Rio, Irina Begu has skipped 22 positions in WTA singles standings and is now ranked 123rd. This improvement is owed not only to her win in the doubles event, but also to the fact that she qualified for the quarterfinals in the singles event. Irina Begu is currently seeded 66th in WTA doubles standings.