I'm surprised there wasn't a thread for this promising Romanian, so I made one. Here it is:
Date of Birth: 26/08/1990
Birthplace: Bucharest, Romania
Residence: Bucharest, Romania
Current Singles Rank: 228(Career-High)
Current Doubles Rank: 358(Career-High)
(2)Irina-Camelia Begu (ROU) d. (5)Maria Irigoyen (ARG) 62 61
I love Irina's scorelines this week Final against Russian Alexandra Panova, just like last week in Campinas, hope the winner will be the same as last week also. Hai Irina!
When Irina first dropped in the rankings, almost everyone was talking about 'going back to playing ITF's' like a big step backwards for her. While that's definitely true in terms of potential for earning points, I think this turned out to a good confidence booster for her. She is too good for these 25k's. It's just nice to see her finally playing like she believes it herself .
(2)Irina-Camelia Begu (ROU) d. (3/wc)Alexandra Panova (RUS) 75 46 64
Irina started bad today and was 1-4 after just 15 minutes. Somehow she managed to compose herself and came back to win the first one 75. The second set started just like the first one, with Panova breaking for a 3-0 lead, Irina came back to 3-all, only to lose the set 46 in the end. In the third they went head to head until the ninth game when Irina got the break she needed to win the final.
Irina seemed very passive, frustrated and bored today, if her left-right movement was mediocre, her back-forth movement was just awful (I can't remember if she won a point at the net today). The crowd didn't helped either, as they were all cheering for the Russian. Serving was also awful and only Panova's mistakes in the key moments made Irina a winner today.
Brazilians and their over the top love for Russians Reminds me of last year's Florianopolis final.
Glad to see that, despite breazing through the draw, she was able to find some fight in her for the final. What a fantastic 2 weeks for Irina : 100 points, 10 matches won and hopefully a lot of confidence earned. May this be the beginning of a thunderous comeback.
Glad to see that, despite breazing through the draw, she was able to find some fight in her for the final. What a fantastic 2 weeks for Irina : 100 points, 10 matches won and hopefully a lot of confidence earned. May this be the beginning of a thunderous comeback.
Yes, although after some time, blaming everything on her shoulder sounded like a lame excuse, but it looks as if it bothered her throughout the year.
Of course, she will always struggle with her consistency, but without her serve, she is basically left with nothing on these days.
I'm confident to see her back close to the Top 50 this time next year. Her results during the weeks right after Wimbledon with numerous (clay court) MMs might be decisive in that regard.