Athlete of the Week – Tennis player Irina Begu

Begu reached the doubles semi-finals of the WTA tournament in Budapest

Florin Orban, 26.02.2019, 12:56

The Hungarian
capital city Budapest last week played host to a major tennis tournament,
counting towards the WTA circuit. The event had 250,000 USD in prize money. In
the tournament’s singles version, Irina Begu and Sorana Carstea were the best-placed
Romanian competitors. However, Begu and Carstea were unable to go past the
quarterfinals. In the women’s doubles, Irina Begu and Kazakhstan’s Galina
Voskoboeva, got through to the semis. In the final, however, Begu and Voskoboeva
were outclassed by the 3rd seed Hungarian British pair made of Fanny
Sollar and Heather Watson, 6-2, 6-3. For her noteworthy feat in Budapest, Radio
Romania International has designated Irina Begu the Athlete of the week.

Irina Begu was born
in Bucharest on August 26, 1990. Her first great performance occurred in 2006
when Begu won the under-16 European title. In April 2011 in Marbella, Begu
played her first WTA tournament final, where she played as early as the
qualifiers. However, Begu was defeated by Viktoria Azarenka of the Belarus in
the final. Then in July the same year in Budapest, Begu sustained another
defeat in the final, by Italy’s Roberta Vinci. Begu’s record includes four WTA
titles won in Tashkent in 2012, in Seoul in 2015, in Florianopolis in 2016 and
in Bucharest, in 2017. In the women’s doubles, Irina Begu boasts no less than
nine titles in the professional circuit. In 2012, jointly with Monica
Niculescu, she won the Hobart tournament. Then in 2013, she won the tournament
in Rio, together with Anabel Medina Garrigues. In Rio in 2014, Begu won the
title pairing up with Maria Irigoyen, then in Seoul, also in 2014, Begu emerged
as the winner, jointly with Lara Arruabarrena. Pairing up with Raluca Olaru,
Begu won the Bucharest tournament in 2017. Also in 2017, Begu won the Tianjin
tournament, jointly with Sara Errani. In 2018, Begu won two more WTA titles, in
Shenzhen, when she paired up with Simona Halep, and again in Bucharest,
together with Andreea Mitu. The beginning of 2019 also proved auspicious for
Begu as she won the Thailand Open, jointly with Monica Niculescu. In the
current WTA rankings, Begu is 67th-placed in the singles
classification and 32nd in the doubles standings.