Arantxa Rus
Arantxa Rus is a Dutch professional tennis player.
She won one WTA Tour singles title at the 2023 Hamburg Open and four in doubles.
Her biggest singles successes to date include a second-round upset over world No. 2, Kim Clijsters, at the 2011 French Open, reaching the fourth round at the 2012 French Open, and defeating world No. 5, Samantha Stosur, in the 2012 Wimbledon Championships to reach the third round.
Career
2005–07
At age 14, Rus played her first ITF Women's Circuit tournament at Alkmaar where she lost in the second round to Julie Coin. In 2006, she played two more ITF events at Heerhugowaard and Vlaardingen, reaching the semifinals at the latter. In 2007, Rus continued playing on the ITF Circuit, winning her first title at Vlaardingen and second at Alphen aan de Rijn. In San Luis Potosí, she reached the final but lost in three sets.In 's-Hertogenbosch, she was granted a wildcard to play her first WTA Tour main draw. She lost to Alona Bondarenko, in the first round. Her end-of-season 2007 ranking was No. 465.
2008: Juniors Grand Slam champion and turning pro
In 2008, Rus won the girls' singles title at the Australian Open, defeating Jessica Moore in the final and reached the semifinals at Roland Garros and quarterfinals at Wimbledon. Later that year, she became the world No. 1 junior player.In April 2008, she won an ITF title in Bari beating four seeded players en-route, including Lucie Hradecká and Alberta Brianti. Rus was given another wildcard to play at 's-Hertogenbosch, where she was defeated in the first round by Mariya Koryttseva.
In September, she played qualifying in Guangzhou winning both matches. In the first round of the main draw, she beat Yanina Wickmayer, in three sets. This was her first main-draw win on the WTA Tour. Rus reached the quarterfinals by beating Gisela Dulko, before losing to Camille Pin, in straight sets.
She made it through the qualifying and reached the second round in Tashkent losing to top seed Peng Shuai, in two sets. In Opole, she won another ITF tournament, her second in 2008, and fourth overall.
She ended the year ranked No. 188.
2009
Rus failed in the qualifyings at Hobart, and the Australian Open. At Roland Garros, where she started as world No. 142, she passed through the qualifying rounds, won her first-round match against Olivia Sanchez 6–1, 6–1 but then lost to Yaroslava Shvedova 0–6, 2–6.She played a few more tournaments without much success. In the end of the season, she won ten of eleven matches. First, at the ITF Poitiers, she passed through the qualifying rounds, won matches against third seed Alexandra Dulgheru and Séverine Beltrame before losing in the quarterfinals to Pauline Parmentier. Then, she played at an ITF event in Nantes where she won the title without dropping a set through the tournament, with a two-set victory against Renata Voráčová in the final.
She ended the year with a win–loss record of 37–24.
2010
Rus failed at the qualifying rounds of the Hobart International and the Australian Open. In Estoril, she passed three qualifying rounds and won two matches in main draw, but lost to Sorana Cîrstea. She lost at the US Open in the second qualifying round to Wimbledon junior champion Kristýna Plíšková, in three sets. At the Koddaert Ladies Open, she overcame eighth seed Tathiana Garbin in the first round, and in the second was better than Michaëlla Krajicek, before losing in the quarterfinals to second seed Timea Bacsinszky, in straight sets. In the qualifying for the Luxembourg Open, she lost in the first round to No. 5 seed Sorana Cîrstea, in three sets. Later, she competed in the Tennis Masters Rotterdam final against Michaëlla Krajicek, but lost in straight sets. She ended the year with a win–loss record of 33–26.2011
Her first tournament was the Brisbane International, where she played through the qualifying rounds. In the first round, she defeated Isabella Holland. In the second round, she defeated Olivia Rogowska but then lost to Anna Tatishvili in two sets. Rus next went through the qualifying rounds at the Sydney International. In the first round, she beat 1999 Wimbledon semifinalist Mirjana Lučić but in the second round, she lost against Bojana Jovanovski in a narrow three-setter.In the first major event of the season, the Australian Open, Rus went through the qualifying rounds, as the No. 18 seed. In the first round, she defeated Julia Cohen. In the second, she again defeated Isabella Holland, and in the third qualifying round, Rus beat Kurumi Nara, also in straight sets. In her first Australian Open main-draw appearance, she defeated Bethanie Mattek-Sands, but then lost to No. 23 seed, Svetlana Kuznetsova in the second round. Then, she played for the Netherlands Fed Cup Team at Group I of the European/African Zone. She won all of her singles matches against Hungary, Romania, and Latvia, helping the Netherlands with three victories. But they lost in the Promotional Play-off against Switzerland 2–1.
She played at Stockholm, where she won the doubles title with Anastasiya Yakimova, and lost the singles final to Kristina Mladenovic. She withdrew from the WTA event in Monterrey due to illness. At Indian Wells, she played in the qualifying draw, but lost to Jamie Hampton, in three sets. At the Bahamas Open, she beat Jill Craybas and Kristina Barrois in the first two rounds. In the quarterfinals, she met her doubles partner, Anastasiya Yakimova, and lost in two sets. Then, she played qualifying matches for the Miami Open. In the first round, she defeated Misaki Doi and Michelle Larcher de Brito in the second qualifying round. In the main draw, she lost in the first round against Lourdes Domínguez Lino, in three sets. Next was the Andalucia Tennis Experience, where she faced Dinara Safina in the first round, losing in three sets. She also lost in the first round at Fes in three sets to Aravane Rezaï. Then she played qualifying matches for the Portugal Open, beating Anne Kremer in the first round, but losing against Sesil Karatancheva in three sets. At the Madrid Open, she lost her first-round match against Maria Sharapova.
She continued on the ITF Circuit, first at Saint-Gaudens. In the first round, Rus beat Claire de Gubernatis, and then Séverine Beltrame in the second round. In the quarterfinal, she beat former junior No. 1 Elina Svitolina in three sets, and in the semifinal defeated Valeria Savinykh in straight sets. She lost to Anastasia Pivovarova in the final in three sets. Then, she went on to the French Open and defeated Marina Erakovic in the first round. In the second round, she defeated the No. 2 seed Kim Clijsters in three sets, after saving two match points. She then lost to Maria Kirilenko in the next round. Than she played at UNICEF Open where she defeated Indy de Vroome and CoCo Vandeweghe before she lost again to Svetlana Kuznetsova.
In Wimbledon qualifying first round, she was better than Olivia Sanchez before she lost to Lindsay Lee-Waters, in the second. Then, she played at the ITF Cuneo where she defeated Camilla Rosatello, Laura Pous Tió, Petra Martić, and Mirjana Lučić but lost to Anna Tatishvili in the final. She was playing at the Contrexéville Open where, as the top seed, she defeated Anna-Lena Grönefeld in the first round, Roxane Vaisemberg in the second, both in straight sets, but lost to Iryna Brémond in the quarterfinals. Then, she played ITF Astana where she defeated Zarina Diyas in the first round; but in the second round against Ekaterina Bychkova, she retired in the third set with Bychkova leading 2–0. Later in the year at the US Open, she defeated Elena Vesnina but lost to Caroline Wozniacki in the second round. After that, she played at the ITF event in Nigbo and lost to Xu Yifan in the second round, followed by three first-round losses at Seoul, Pan Pacific open and at the qualifying first round in Linz. Her next tournament was in Dubai where she won matches against Erika Sema, Conny Perrin, and Akgul Amanmuradova, before losing to Kristina Mladenovic in the semifinals.
2012: Best season, French Open 4th round, career-high ranking
At the Brisbane, she lost her qualifying first-round match to Arantxa Parra Santonja and then lost to Vania King in the same round at Sydney. In her second Australian Open main-draw appearance, she lost to Lesia Tsurenko, in two sets.She missed Fed Cup matches due to a tooth infection, and then lost in the Qatar Ladies Open qualifying first round against Caroline Garcia. She went on in Dubai and defeated Barbora Záhlavová-Strýcová in the qualifying first round, and Ons Jabeur in the second before she lost to Simona Halep in final qualifying round.
She went over to the Indian Wells Open but lost to Elena Baltacha in the first round. After that, she played an ITF tournament in Clearwater. She defeated Tetiana Luzhanska and Sachia Vickery before losing to Garbiñe Muguruza. She then headed over to the Miami Open, where she beat Caroline Garcia before she lost to Misaki Doi.
Then, in her first clay tournament of the year, The Oaks Club Challenger, she won the first title since Nantes in 2009. She defeated Misaki Doi, Irina Falconi, Florencia Molinero, Edina Gallovits-Hall, and in the final, Sesil Karatantcheva. She played in Charleston and lost in the first round against Anna Tatishvili in three sets. In Brussels, she reached the second round by beating Zheng Jie, but had to retire because of a lower back injury in her second-round match against Sofia Arvidsson.
Rus entered Roland Garros main draw based on her ranking and reached the second round, after Jamie Hampton retired with Rus leading. She then beat Virginie Razzano, who had a shock win over Serena Williams in the first round, in two sets. Subsequently, for the first time in her career, she reached the last 16 of a major tournament with a victory in three sets over 25th seed Julia Görges. She lost in the fourth round to 23rd seed Kaia Kanepi in three sets. Rus was the first Dutchwoman in 19 years to reach the fourth round in Paris.
She entered Wimbledon Championships and beat Misaki Doi in the first round. She then shocked fifth seeded Samantha Stosur in three sets in the second round. Rus lost in the third round to Peng Shuai in straight sets. It was the best Wimbledon result in her career. Afterwards, she reached semifinals at the 100k Biarritz tournament played on clay. Her last win at WTA Tour-level was in Dallas, as she went on to lose in the first round at the US Open, Seoul, Linz and Luxembourg tournaments.
Rus finished the year ranked No. 68 in the world, her best year-end ranking.