Athlete of the Week

The year's first Grand Slam tournament, the Australian Open, ended last week in Melbourne.

Novak Djokovic won the men's competition, the present edition actually being the tenth he has won in his entire career. The Serbian player has also added his 22nd Grand Slam trophy equaling the record so far held by Spanish Rafael Nadal. The women's competition was won by the 24-year-old Arina Sabalenka of Belarus, who obtained her first Grand Slam win. She presently comes second in the world's ranking after Polish Iga Swiatek.

Romania was represented only in the women's competition where Irina Begu made it to the second round while Monica Niculescu reached the eighth finals together with Swiss Viktorija Golubic. The best performance in the aforementioned competition was obtained by Elena-Gabriela Ruse, who made it to the semifinals together with Ukrainian Marta Kostyuk. The two eventually conceded defeat to second-seeded Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic who eventually emerged as winners. For the performance she obtained in Melbourne, Radio Romania International has designated Gabriela Ruse athlete of the week.

Elena-Gabriela Ruse was born on November 6th 1997, in Bucharest. She took up tennis at the age of four with Dinamo Bucharest Sports club. She reaped only one WTA tournament in Hamburg in 2021 and made it to the finals in Palermo. She is currently ranking 144th in the world ranking and the highest position she obtained last year when she ranked 51st. In the doubles competition she is presently ranking 40th.

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