Elena-Gabriela Ruse (born 6 November 1997) is a Romanian tennis player. She has career-high WTA rankings of 51 in singles and 55 in doubles. She won her maiden WTA Tour singles title at the 2021 Hamburg European Open. She has also won six singles and ten doubles titles on the ITF Circuit.
Ruse won two junior singles titles and eight junior doubles titles. The biggest title of her junior career was the Grade-1 Canadian Open Junior Championships, where she beat Katie Swan in the final. Ruse also reached the semifinals of the 2014 Wimbledon girls' singles event in 2014 and the final of Eddie Herr. On the ITF Junior Circuit, she had a career-high combined ranking of 7, achieved on 18 May 2015.
Professional career
2015–2016: Rise up the rankings, WTA Tour debut
When Ruse finished her junior career, she still did not have a professional ranking.
In July 2015, Ruse made her WTA Tour main-draw debut as a wildcard at the Bucharest Open in the doubles event, partnering Jaqueline Cristian. She also received a wildcard into the qualifying draw in singles at the same tournament and beat Alexandra Cadantu in the first round. She lost her next match to Maria Sakkari. She reached semifinals at $10k events in Bucharest and Antalya.
In December 2015, Ruse won her first professional singles title at Antalya, beating Ekaterine Gorgodze in the final. She finished 2015 with a year-end ranking of No. 642 in singles and No. 575 in doubles.
In January 2016, she qualified for the $25k event in Sunrise, beating former top-30 player Laura Robson along the way, and reached the quarterfinals. After that event, she won ten singles matches and eight doubles matches in a row and won two singles and two doubles titles at $10k events in Antalya. In March, Ruse reached two straight finals at $10k events in Hammamet, Tunisia. She lost the first one to Claudia Giovine in straight sets, snapping her 14-match winning streak in singles, and in the second one she beat Julia Grabher. At the end of April, Ruse qualified for a $25k event in Chiasso, Switzerland and reached the semifinals, where she lost to fellow qualifier Amanda Carreras.
After taking time off for her high school graduation, Ruse returned to competition in June at a $50k event in Essen, Germany. As the last direct acceptance, Ruse shocked top seed Aliaksandra Sasnovich in three sets for her first win over a top-100 player. Due to rain delays in Essen, she had to play her second-round match the same day and lost in straight sets to qualifier Olga Sáez Larra.
2018-2019: Grand Slam singles debut at Wimbledon, first WTA doubles final
Ruse won her maiden WTA Tour singles title at the Hamburg European Open, defeating Andrea Petkovic in the final. As a result of this successful run, she climbed 65 positions and entered the top 150 in singles at a new career-high of world No. 133.[1] Following her run in Hamburg, Ruse reached a second consecutive final later that month, at the Palermo Open; she lost in straight sets to Danielle Collins.[2] She made her US Open debut as a qualifier, but lost in the first round to Markéta Vondroušová.[3] She reached another new career-high of No. 83 in the world on October 18, 2021, and finished the year ranked No. 85. [4]
Performance timeline
Key
W
F
SF
QF
#R
RR
Q#
P#
DNQ
A
Z#
PO
G
S
B
NMS
NTI
P
NH
(W) winner; (F) finalist; (SF) semifinalist; (QF) quarterfinalist; (#R) rounds 4, 3, 2, 1; (RR) round-robin stage; (Q#) qualification round; (P#) preliminary round; (DNQ) did not qualify; (A) absent; (Z#) Davis/Fed Cup Zonal Group (with number indication) or (PO) play-off; (G) gold, (S) silver or (B) bronze Olympic/Paralympic medal; (NMS) not a Masters tournament; (NTI) not a Tier I tournament; (P) postponed; (NH) not held; (SR) strike rate (events won / competed); (W–L) win–loss record.
To avoid confusion and double counting, these charts are updated at the conclusion of a tournament or when the player's participation has ended.
Only main-draw results in WTA Tour, Grand Slam tournaments, Fed Cup/Billie Jean King Cup and Olympic Games are included in win–loss records.[5]
^ abThe first Premier 5 event of the year has switched back and forth between the Dubai Tennis Championships and the Qatar Total Open since 2009. Dubai was classified as a Premier 5 event from 2009–2011 before being succeeded by Doha for the 2012–2014 period. In 2015, Dubai regained its Premier 5 status while Doha was demoted to Premier status. The Premier 5 tournaments were reclassified as WTA 1000 tournaments in 2021.
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Romania
Andrea Petkovic
Danielle Collins
Viktória Kužmová 
Kristýna Plíšková
Ekaterine Gorgodze
Josephine Boualem
Nina Potočnik
Claudia Giovine
Julia Grabher
Maryna Zanevska
Julie Noe
Alona Fomina 
Petia Arshinkova
Eleni Daniilidou 
Arina Folts
Adrijana Lekaj 
Ola Abou Zekry 
Snehadevi Reddy
Laura Pous Tió 
Eva Wacanno
Anastasiya Komardina
Dea Herdželaš 
Sarah Beth Grey 
Laura Pigossi 
Aymet Uzcategui
Cornelia Lister 
Raluca Șerban 
Melis Sezer
Xenia Knoll
Anna Bondár 
Priscilla Hon 
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