Tennis player Raluca Olaru

Less than a week since the start of the New Year, Romanian has already seen a noteworthy performance in sports.

Florin Orban, 10.01.2017, 13:53

Less than a week since the start of the New Year, Romanian has already seen a noteworthy performance, since Raluca Olaru has succeeded to reach as far as the doubles finals in the WTA tournament in Shenzhen, China. Olaru paired up with Ukraine’s Olga Savciuk, alongside whom the Romanian had won the women’s doubles of the WTA tournament in Tashkent, back in 2008.

In Shenzhen, the Olaru / Savciuk pair was third seed. In the first round, the two had no problem securing a 6-2, 6-2 win against the all-Chinese pair made up of Ying-Ying Duan and Qiang Wang, who gained access to the main draw thanks to a wild card offered by the organizers. In the second round, Olaru and Savciuk outclassed another all-Chinese pair made of Chen Liang and Jin-Jin Lu. The Chinese won the first set, 6-2, but Olaru and Savciuk won the second set, 7-6, then went on to seal the fate of the game in a tiebreak they won 14 to 12. In the semi-finals, a fixture was scheduled against American – Chinese top-seed pair made up of Raquel Atawo and Yifan Xu. However, the latter pulled out of competition, so Olaru reached the final without fight. However, Olaru and Savciuk were overpowered by the Czech-Chinese pair Andrea Hlavackova / Shuai Peng, 6-1, 7-5.

For reaching the doubles’ final of the Shenzhen tournament, Radio Romania International designated Raluca Olaru the Athlete of the Week. Ioana Raluca Olaru was born on March 3, 1989. She has been a pro since she was 14, and is ranked among the world’s top 1,000 players since 2004.

Olaru reached the peak of her career in the singles’ competition in July 2009, when she was ranked 53rd in the world. In the women’s doubles Olaru climbed as far as position 44, a feat she succeeded in September 2015. At present Raluca Olaru’s name can only be found in the world’s doubles rankings, where she is 64th-placed. Raluca won five doubles tournaments, while in the singles’ competition she reached as far as a WTA tournament final once, in Linz, in 2009, where she sustained a defeat by Germany’s Andrea Petkovic.