Irina-Camelia Begu

Irina-Camelia Begu (born 26 August 1990) is a Romanian professional tennis player.

Begu was born on 26 August 1990 in Bucharest.

Her mother Steluţa is a civil servant, while her father Paul is an electrician.

She has an older brother, Andrei.

She started playing tennis when she was three-and-a-half years old as her aunt, former tennis player Aurelia Gheorghe, introduced her to the sport.

At junior ages, she also did gymnastics and played handball.

At the age of 14, Irina took part in a one-month tour promoted by the ITF with seven other girls and eight boys, joining the likes of Grigor Dimitrov and Ricardas Berankis.

Her idol growing up was Martina Hingis.

Begu is a former junior world No. 14.

She made her singles ITF Junior Circuit debut at the Grade-4 Wilson ITF Junior Classic in Salzburg in January 2005.

In March 2005, she made her doubles debut at the Grade-3 Trofeul D Sturdza in Moldova.

She won one singles and three doubles title in total on the ITF junior tour.

She won her first singles junior title at the Grade-2 Raquette D'Or in Mohammedia in June 2006.

The following week, she reached another Grade-2 final, but this time in Casablanca, where she lost.

In December 2006, she made her debut at the Orange Bowl, where she reached third round in singles and first round in doubles.

She followed this with semifinal of the Grade-1 Yucatán World Cup in singles, but there won the title in doubles.

She then finished season of 2006 with quarterfinal of the Grade-A International Casablanca Junior Cup in Tlalnepantla.

As a junior, she reached semifinal at the 2007 Wimbledon Championships, partnering with Oksana Kalashnikova.

Later, as a senior, she continued with Grand Slam doubles success.

She achieved this ranking on 27 August 2007, day after she turned 17.

She started the 2007 season with the quarterfinal of the Grade-1 Coffee Bowl in San José.

Nearly after that, she reached semifinal of the Grade-1 Czech International Junior Indoor Championships in Přerov.

In April 2007, she won Grade-1 Perin Memorial in doubles in Umag.

In May 2007, she reached semifinal of the Grade-1 International Junior Tournament "Citta' Di Santa Croce".

The following week, she played at the Trofeo Bonfiglio and reached quarterfinal, losing there to Anastasia Pivovarova.

At the 2007 French Open, she made her major debut, but lost in the first round to Ksenia Lykina.

She lost in the first round of the doubles draw, as well.

She then reached singles final of the Grade-1 International Junior Tournament of Offenbach, but won the title in doubles.

At Wimbledon in 2007, she lost in the first round to Arantxa Rus; in doubles, she reached semifinal alongside Oksana Kalashnikova.

They lost to Misaki Doi and Kurumi Nara.

The 2008 French Open was her last junior tournament, she lost in the first round in both singles and doubles.

In singles, she reached one Premier final, at the 2014 Kremlin Cup, but lost to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.

In singles, she has the round of 16 as her best Grand Slam result at the 2015 Australian Open, 2016 French Open and 2022 French Open.

Her other significant results in singles include two quarterfinals of the Premier Mandatory-level Madrid Open in 2015 and 2016 and semifinal of the Premier 5 Italian Open in 2016.

In doubles, she has never won higher level tournament than International, but reached the final of the Premier-5 Wuhan Open in 2015, as well as, two Premier-level finals at the Kremlin Cup in 2015 and Eastbourne International in 2018.

She reached a career-high singles ranking of No. 22 in the world, in August 2016.

Two years later, she reached her highest WTA doubles ranking, also No. 22.

Begu has won five singles titles and nine doubles titles on the WTA Tour.

She also has won two singles titles on the WTA Challenger Tour, with 12 singles and 19 doubles titles on the ITF Women's Circuit.

She reached the semifinal at the 2018 Australian Open and quarterfinals of the 2017 French Open and 2018 Wimbledon Championships.