Alexandra Dulgheru (; born 30 May 1989) is a professional tennis player from Romania. On 11 April 2011, she achieved her career-high singles ranking of world No. 26. Her best ranking in doubles is No. 41, reached on 4 July 2011. She is coached by

Gabriel Urpí Gabriel Urpí Ribas (born 16 August 1961) is a former professional tennis player from Spain. Playing career Urpi was the Orange Bowl champion in 1978 and a semi-finalist in the boys' singles event at the French Open that year. A clay court spec ...

Personal

Her father Dumitru is a pilot, and her mother Doina is an airline coordinator. Her sister Bianca is an assistant hotel manager. She speaks

Romanian Romanian may refer to: *anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania **Romanians, an ethnic group **Romanian language, a Romance language *** Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language ** Romanian cuisine, tradition ...

, English, and Spanish, and is currently studying economics at

Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies The Bucharest University of Economic Studies ( ro, Academia de Studii Economice din București, abbreviated ''ASE'') is a public university in Bucharest, Romania. Founded in 1913 as the ''Academy of Higher-level Commercial and Industrial Studies'' ...

Career

Her best junior result came at the 2006 Wimbledon girls' championship, where she was defeated in the quarterfinals by Tamira Paszek 6–4, 6–4. She also made the doubles final with Kristina Antoniychuk. They lost to

Alisa Kleybanova Alisa Mikhailovna Kleybanova (russian: Алиса Михайловна Клейбанова, born 15 July 1989) is a Russian former tennis player. Her career-high singles ranking is world No. 20, achieved in February 2011. In her career. she wo ...

and

Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova Anastasia Sergeyevna "Nastia" Pavlyuchenkova (russian: Анастаси́я "Настя" Серге́евна Павлюче́нкова; born 3 July 1991) is an inactive Russian professional tennis player. A junior prodigy, Pavlyuchenkova won ...

1–6, 2–6. At the end of 2008, she was No. 346 in the

WTA rankings The WTA rankings are the ratings defined by the Women's Tennis Association, introduced in November 1975. Iga Świątek is the current world No. 1. Ranking method The WTA rankings are based on a rolling 52-week, cumulative system. A play ...

2009: First WTA title

In April 2009, she finished runner-up to Kimiko Date-Krumm in a $75,000 tournament in Monzon. Two weeks later, she won a $25k tournament in Bari, where she defeated

Sandra Záhlavová Sandra Záhlavová (born 10 October 1985) is a Czech former tennis player. Záhlavová won 12 singles and nine doubles titles on the ITF Women's Circuit in her career. On 21 June 2010, she reached her best singles ranking of world No. 78. On 12 ...

in the final. She made her

WTA Tour The WTA Tour is a worldwide top-tier tennis tour for women organized by the Women's Tennis Association. The second-tier tour is the WTA 125K series, and third-tier is the ITF Women's Circuit. The men's equivalent is the ATP Tour. WTA Tour tourna ...

debut as a qualifier in the

Warsaw Open The Warsaw Open, formerly the J&S Cup, was a women's tennis tournament on the WTA Tour held in Warsaw, Poland. Held since 1995, the tournament was played on outdoor clay courts. The event returned for two years to the WTA Tour in 2009 after a ...

. She defeated fellow Romanian qualifier Ágnes Szatmári in the first round. She followed that up with a two-sets win over 44th-ranked

Sara Errani Sara Errani (; born 29 April 1987) is an Italian professional tennis player. She is a former top five player in singles and former world No. 1 in doubles. With 9 singles titles and 27 doubles titles (including 5 Grand Slam doubles championship ...

to advance to the quarterfinals, where she beat 95th-ranked

Galina Voskoboeva Galina Olegovna Voskoboeva (russian: Галина Олеговна Воскобоева; born 18 December 1984) is a professional Russian-born Kazakhstani tennis player. She reached a career-high singles ranking of world No. 42 on 7 May 2012. He ...

. She defeated world No. 36 and former world No. 5,

Daniela Hantuchová Daniela Hantuchová (; born 23 April 1983) is a Slovak tennis commentator and retired player. She turned professional in 1999 and had her breakthrough year in 2002, when she won her first WTA Tour title at the Indian Wells Masters, defeating Mar ...

, to reach her first WTA final, in which she beat

Alona Bondarenko Alona Volodymyrivna Bondarenko Dyachok ( uk, Альона Володимирівна Бондаренко; born 13 August 1984) is a Ukrainian former tennis player. Her younger sister Kateryna Bondarenko plays on the WTA Tour. Her career-high s ...

in three sets. Her next tournament was

Prague Open In tennis, Prague Open may refer to: * Prague Open (1987–1999) * ATP Prague Open * WTA Prague Open * Sparta Prague Open Challenger The Sparta Prague Open Challenger is a professional tennis tournament played on Tennis court#Clay courts, clay cou ...

where she lost in the opening round to

Carla Suárez Navarro Carla Suárez Navarro (; born 3 September 1988, in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria) is a Spanish former professional tennis player. A former top 10 singles player, she reached a career-high singles ranking of world No. 6 on 29 February 2016, and a b ...

. In Bad Gastein tournament, Alexandra suffered yet another opening-round exit at the hands of the fourth seeded

Iveta Benešová Iveta Benešová () (formerly Melzer, cs, Melzerová; born 1 February 1983) is a Czech former tennis player. She began playing tennis at age of seven and turned professional in 1998. She won two WTA Tour singles and 14 doubles tournaments, and ...

. In August 2009, she made her Grand Slam debut at the US Open where she lost in the first round to eighth seeded

Victoria Azarenka Victória Fyódarauna Azárenka ( be, Вікторыя Фёдараўна Азаранка; Russian: Виктория Фёдоровна Азаренко; born 31 July 1989) is a Belarusian professional tennis player. Azarenka is a former w ...

. At the Linz tournament, she won in the first round over

Sybille Bammer Sybille Bammer (born 27 April 1980) is a former professional tennis player from Austria. Her career-high ranking is No. 19, which she achieved on 17 December 2007. She was one of three mothers on the WTA Tour, having taken time off at age 21 to ...

in two sets, before she lost to third seeded and eventual champion,

Yanina Wickmayer Yanina Wickmayer (born 20 October 1989) is a Belgian professional tennis player. She reached the semifinals at the 2009 US Open, and a career-high WTA ranking of world No. 12, on 19 April 2010. In doubles, she achieved a career-high of world No. ...

. She then lost in the first round of the

Luxembourg Open Luxembourg Open, Tennis tournaments in Luxembourg Indoor tennis tournaments Hard court tennis tournaments WTA Tour Kockelscheuer Recurring sporting events established in 1991 Autumn events in Luxembourg 1991 establishments in Luxembourg ...

to Wickmayer. These results brought her to be, by the year end, world No. 52 in the WTA rankings.

2010: Reaching top 30

At the first Grand Slam championship of the year, the

Australian Open The Australian Open is a tennis tournament held annually at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Australia. The tournament is the first of the four Grand Slam tennis events held each year, preceding the French Open, Wimbledon, and the US Open. Th ...

, Alexandra entered both the singles and the doubles events, these being her first appearances at Melbourne. In singles, she lost in the first round to qualifier Yanina Wickmayer in three sets. In doubles, she teamed up with compatriot

Edina Gallovits Klaudia Edina Gallovits-Hall (née Gallovits; born December 10, 1984) is a Romanian Americans, Romanian-born American tennis player. Her career-high ranking of No. 54 she achieved on April 28, 2008. She represented Romania until April 2015, then ...

; they lost in the first round to American-Czech team of

Carly Gullickson Carly Gullickson (born November 26, 1986) is an American former professional tennis player. Her best singles ranking is No. 123, which she reached in July 2009. Her career-high doubles ranking is No. 52, achieved in April 2006 at age 19. She is ...

Vladimíra Uhlířová Vladimíra Uhlířová (born 4 May 1978) is a retired Czech tennis player. In her career, she won five doubles titles on the WTA Tour, as well as 17 doubles titles on the ITF Women's Circuit. In October 2003, she reached her best singles ranki ...

, in three sets. The first highlight of the year came at the

Barcelona Open There are two sporting events named the Barcelona Open: * Barcelona Open (golf) * Barcelona Open (tennis) {{Short pages monitor