Irina Maria Bara (born 18 March 1995) is a professional

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

player from Romania. She has a career-high singles ranking of world No. 104, achieved on 18 April 2022. On 13 May 2019, she peaked at No. 56 in the WTA doubles rankings. She won her maiden WTA Tour doubles title at the

2021 Transylvania Open The 2021 Transylvania Open was a women's tennis tournament played on indoor hard courts. It was the first edition of the Transylvania Open, and part of the WTA 250 series of the 2021 WTA Tour. It was held at the BT Arena in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, ...

, partnering

Ekaterine Gorgodze Ekaterine Gorgodze ( ka, ეკატერინე გორგოძე, tr, ; born 3 December 1991) is a Georgian professional tennis player. Gorgodze has won two doubles titles on the WTA Tour and also four doubles titles on the WTA Challe ...

. Bara has also won five doubles titles on the

WTA Challenger Tour WTA 125 tournaments are an international series of professional women's tennis tournaments organized by the Women's Tennis Association since 2012. In the past (2012–2015) sometimes called the WTA Challenger seriesITF Circuit, most of them on clay. In singles, she reached a $100k and an $80k finals, three finals at $60k events, but lost all of them, having $25k as her highest category that she won. In doubles, she won a couple of $60k and $80k tournaments, but also won one $100k event, the 2016 Soho Square Tournament in Sharm El Sheik, Egypt. Bara is better known for her performances in doubles, reaching the top 100. Her most significant result so far is a quarterfinal at the

2018 French Open The 2018 French Open was a Grand Slam (tennis), major tennis tournament played on outdoor clay courts. It took place at the Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France, from 27 May to 10 June and consisted of events for players in singles, doubles and m ...

, partnering with

Mihaela Buzărnescu Mihaela Buzărnescu (born 4 May 1988) is a Romanian professional tennis player. She has a career-high WTA singles ranking of No. 20, achieved on 6 August 2018. Her best doubles ranking of world No. 24, she reached on 22 October 2018. She has ...

. In 2019, she also reached quarterfinals of the

Madrid Open There are three sporting events known as the Madrid Open: * Madrid Open (golf) The Madrid Open was an annual men's golf tournament which was held in and around the Spanish capital Madrid from 1968 to 2007, apart from a seven-year gap from 1994 to ...

, again with Buzărnescu. In singles, her best result so far is a third round of the

2020 French Open The 2020 French Open was a Grand Slam (tennis), major tennis tournament played on outdoor clay courts. It was held at the Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France. Originally scheduled for 24 May to 7 June, owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was firs ...

on her Grand Slam singles debut, also her first Major singles win. The highest round she reached in singles is the quarterfinals, at the 2019 Baltic Open, while in doubles, she reached a couple of semifinals, but never a 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 ...

main-draw debut at the 2015 Bucharest Open in the doubles event, partnering Buzărnescu, while her first match in a singles event was two years later, at the same tournament, when she, as a wildcard player, lost in the first round to

Aliaksandra Sasnovich Aliaksandra Aliaksandraŭna Sasnovich ( be, Аляксандра Аляксандраўна Сасновіч; born 22 March 1994) is a Belarusian tennis player. She has won eleven singles and seven doubles titles on the ITF Circuit. She has rea ...

Career review

2017–19: WTA Tour debut, first quarterfinal and, top 200

Bara made her

debut in singles at the 2017 Bucharest Open, when she lost as a wildcard player in the first round to Aliaksandra Sasnovich. Her next WTA tournament was also there, in

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...

; she realized her first WTA Tour singles match-win, defeating

Viktoriya Tomova Viktoriya Konstantinova Tomova ( bg, Виктория Константинова Томова, born 25 February 1995) is a professional Bulgarian tennis player. Tomova reached a career-high WTA singles ranking of 89 achieved on 31 October 2022. ...

in the first round, and then lost to

Polona Hercog Polona Hercog (, born 20 January 1991) is a Slovenian professional tennis player. Her career-high WTA rankings are 35 in singles and 56 in doubles. She has won five titles on the WTA Tour, three in singles and two in doubles. Hercog also enjoyed ...

. At the

2018 Moscow River Cup The 2018 Moscow River Cup was a women's tennis tournament played on outdoor clay courts. It was the first edition of the event and part of the WTA International tournaments of the 2018 WTA Tour. It took place at the National Tennis Center in Mosco ...

, she defeated

Ekaterina Alexandrova Ekaterina Evgenyevna Alexandrova ( rus, Екатери́на Евге́ньевна Александро́ва, links=no; ; born 15 November 1994) is a Russian professional tennis player. She has won three WTA singles titles, three WTA 125 titl ...

before she was eliminated by

Anastasija Sevastova Anastasija Sevastova (born 13 April 1990) is an inactive professional tennis player from Latvia. She reached her career-high singles ranking of world No. 11 in October 2018, after reaching her first Premier Mandatory final at the China Open. She ...

in the second round. In 2019, at the

Baltic Open The Baltic Open is a women's professional tennis tournament held at National Tennis Center Lielupe in Jūrmala, Latvia. It replaced the Moscow River Cup with the tournament joining the WTA Tour with it being classified as an International tourn ...

Jūrmala Jūrmala (; "seaside") is a state city in Latvia, about west of Riga. Jūrmala is a resort town stretching and sandwiched between the Gulf of Riga and the Lielupe River. It has a stretch of white-sand beach, and a population of 49,325 in 2019 ...

, she reached her first and so far only quarterfinal, where she beat two Russian players,

Margarita Gasparyan Margarita Melikovna Betova (née Gasparyan; rus, Маргари́та Ме́ликовна Гаспаря́н, , mərɡɐˈrʲitə ɡəspɐˈrʲan, Ru-Margarita Gasparyan.ogg, hy, Մարգարիտա Մելիքի Գասպարյան; born 1 Sept ...

and Valentina Ivakhnenko, in the first two rounds, before losing to Sevastova. Her other WTA Tour performances that year were unsuccessful, losing in the first round in

Acapulco Acapulco de Juárez (), commonly called Acapulco ( , also , nah, Acapolco), is a city and major seaport in the state of Guerrero on the Pacific Coast of Mexico, south of Mexico City. Acapulco is located on a deep, semicircular bay and has bee ...

Beatriz Haddad Maia Beatriz Haddad Maia (born 30 May 1996) is a Brazilian professional tennis player. On 22 August 2022, she reached a career-high in the WTA rankings in singles at No. 15. Haddad Maia has won two singles and four doubles titles on the WTA Tour, on ...

, in

Bogotá Bogotá (, also , , ), officially Bogotá, Distrito Capital, abbreviated Bogotá, D.C., and formerly known as Santa Fe de Bogotá (; ) during the Spanish period and between 1991 and 2000, is the capital city of Colombia, and one of the larges ...

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 ...

, in

İstanbul Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...

to fellow Romanian

Sorana Cîrstea Sorana Mihaela Cîrstea (; born 7 April 1990) is a Romanian professional tennis player. In singles, she achieved a career-high ranking of world No. 21 on 12 August 2013. In doubles, her career-high ranking is No. 35, which she reached on 9 March ...

, in

Rabat Rabat (, also , ; ar, الرِّبَاط, er-Ribât; ber, ⵕⵕⴱⴰⵟ, ṛṛbaṭ) is the capital city of Morocco and the country's seventh largest city with an urban population of approximately 580,000 (2014) and a metropolitan populati ...

to Hercog, and finally in

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north of ...

Jaimee Fourlis Jaimee Fourlis (born 17 September 1999) is a professional Australian tennis player of Greek descent. She has a career-high singles ranking of world No. 147, achieved on 18 July 2022, and a highest doubles ranking of world No. 138, reached on 2 ...

. On 17 July 2017, Bara entered top 200 for the first time, getting to No. 199. On 2 July 2018, she entered the top 150, reaching No. 150. On 13 August 2018, she rose to No. 139, her highest singles ranking until 2020. Until 2020, Bara was unsuccessful in her attempt to reach a main-draw at any Grand Slam tournament. She failed in qualifying at all four events, in both 2018 and 2019, as well as at Wimbledon and the US Open in 2017.

2020: Grand Slam debut & third round at the French Open

In March, Bara entered the main draw of the

Lyon Open Lyon Open may refer to: * ATP Lyon Open, a men's professional tennis tournament * WTA Lyon Open, a women's professional tennis tournament {{disambiguation ...

, passing through qualifying. In the main draw, she beat

Tímea Babos Tímea Babos (; born 10 May 1993) is a Hungarian professional tennis player who is a former world No. 1 in doubles. She is a four-time Grand Slam champion in women's doubles, having won the 2018 and 2020 Australian Opens, as well as the Fre ...

, and then lost to

Daria Kasatkina Daria Sergeyevna Kasatkina (born 7 May 1997) is a Russian professional tennis player. She is currently the Russian No. 1 player in singles. She made her top-ten debut in the WTA rankings towards the end of the 2018 season and has been ranked ...

in the second round. In late September, Bara played the qualifying for the

French Open The French Open (french: Internationaux de France de tennis), also known as Roland-Garros (), is a major tennis tournament held over two weeks at the Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France, beginning in late May each year. The tournament and ven ...

, where she qualified for the first time for the main draw of a Grand Slam tournament. The other significant thing there, was that she also recorded her first win, defeating 26th seed

Donna Vekić Donna Vekić (; born 28 June 1996) is a Croatian professional tennis player and businesswoman. She has won three singles titles on the WTA Tour – at the 2014 Malaysian Open, at the 2017 Nottingham Open, and the 2021 Courmayeur Ladies Open. S ...

in straight sets. She won in the second round, after the retirement of

Alison Van Uytvanck Alison Van Uytvanck (; born 26 March 1994) is a Belgian professional tennis player. Van Uytvanck has won five singles and two doubles WTA Tour titles and three Challenger Tour singles titles, as well as 12 singles and two doubles titles on th ...

. In the third round against No. 3 seed

Sofia Kenin Sofia Anna "Sonya" Kenin (born November 14, 1998) is an American professional tennis player. She has a career-high ranking by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) of No. 4 in the world, which she achieved on March 9, 2020. She was the 2020 WTA ...

, she could win only two games. Two weeks later, Bara reached a new career-high singles ranking, as world No. 115.

2021: First WTA doubles & three more Challenger titles; ITF 100k singles final

In May, Bara played her first ITF $100K final in

Bonita Springs (beautiful), eng, beautiful springs , settlement_type = City , image_skyline = Bonita_Beach.JPG , imagesize = 250x200px , image_caption = Bonita Beach , image_flag ...

, USA which she lost to

Katie Volynets Katie Volynets (born December 31, 2001) is an American tennis player. She achieved a career-high singles ranking of No. 92 by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) on February 27, 2023. She won her first singles title in May 2021 on the ITF Circ ...

. She played in the main draw at the

, but lost to

Astra Sharma Astra Sharma (born 11 September 1995) is a Singaporean-born Australian professional tennis player. She has career-high WTA rankings of 84 in singles and world No. 91 in doubles. Sharma has won one singles title and three doubles titles on the W ...

. As a result, on 28 June, she reached a new career-high singles ranking of world No. 112. In September, Irina won her first out of three WTA 125 Challenger titles in the season, partnering with

. In October, Bara won her first WTA Tour title, playing again with Gorgodze at the

in her home country.

2022: Australian Open and Wimbledon debuts, career-high singles ranking

On 18 April 2022, she reached a new career-high ranking of No. 104.

Performance timelines

''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.''

Singles

''Current through the 2022 Cluj.''

Doubles

''Current through the 2022 Qatar Open.''

WTA career finals

Doubles: 1 (1 title)

WTA Challenger finals

Doubles: 5 (5 titles)

ITF Circuit finals

Singles: 21 (9 titles, 12 runner–ups)

Doubles: 47 (29 titles, 18 runner–ups)

Notes

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bara, Irina Maria Romanian female tennis players 1995 births Living people People from Ștei