Cristina-Elena Vladimirescu (born August 5, 1993) is a professional tennis player from Romania. She has won four doubles titles on the FWTT Tour. In 2011 she made her first Grand Slam final in Wimbledon. She has a career high rank of 11 in singles, and 14 in doubles.
She is known for her pessimistic attitude, often having meltdowns, changeover tantrums and racket abuse in matches.
Tennis Career[]
2010[]
Cristina-Elena Vladimirescu made her debut on the tour in July playing ITF tournaments. She made her first main tour appearence in Istanbul where she made the semifinals in both singles and doubles, losing to Tami Lamy-Chappuis in both events.She won her first doubles title in Copenhagen partnering Ziyi Zianzhi in Copenhagen. In singles she failed to qualify in Cincinnati, Montreal, and New Haven, but continued to have success in doubles alongside Zianzhi making the semifinals of Cincinnati losing to top seeds Paula Masterson and Ruflina Taliamanosoko. At the US Open she lost in the first round in singles to Patsy Lou Seles 6-2, 7-6(9). In doubles, again partnering Zianzhi they lost in the second round to Siri Cornetsson and Harper Johnson 7-6(6), 7-6(4). Throught out the fall Vladimirescu achieved limited success in singles and doubles, and ended the year with a nomination for FWTT Newcomer of the Year.
2011[]
Vladimirescu started 2011 with a first round loss in Hobart to Alina Patersson 6-1, 1-6, 7-6(4). In the Australian Open she lost to Samantha Soren in the second around 3/6, 7/5, 6/4, after upseting 9th seed Jane Wong 7/6(4), 3/6, 6/3 in the first round. Partnering Chantal Chan she won her second doubles title in Bogota beating Caroline Smith and Aveta Tenesova 1/6, 6/3, 7/5 in the finals. In Acapulco, Vladimirescu again partnering Chantal Chan they made the finals losing to Giuseppina Benedetti and Lindsay Raymond 7/5, 2/6, 6/3. After this tournament Vladimirescu and Chan would commit to a full-time partnership. In the ITF Cairo tournament, Vladimirescu made a clean sweep of the singles and doubles titles. She then suffered four first round losses in a row in singles and doubles in Indian Wells, ITF Nassau, Miami, and Wenshan. In Fes, she made her first final on the main tour defeating the top seed Ruflina Taliamanosoko 0/6, 6/4, 6/3, before losing to qualifier Lindsay Galbriath 6/4, 3/6, 7/6(5). In the Clay season she achieved little success in singles, but in doubles made the semifinals of Madrid losing to Anastasia Nemayeva and Vittoria Perez 6-4, 7-5 and the finals of rome losing to Caroline Smith and Athea Kane 6-4, 7-6(4). She lost in the first round of the French Open, but made the semi-finals losing to fellow unseeded team Yanina Wickmayer and Berenika Wojnarowska in three sets. After Roland Garros, Vladimirescu cracked the top 20 in the doubles rankings. Despite grass being her worst surface Vladimirescu made her Grand Slam breakthrough by advancing to her first Grand Slam final. After upsetting Marteena Huubere in the first round, narrowly beating Yanina Wickmayer in the second round, she upset defending champion and number 2 seed Martine Kartincova 7-6(3) 7-6(1). Vladimirescu followed this by beating Paula Masterson in the quarter finals in a very emotional match with the crowd strongly behind Masterson the crowd favorite. In her first Grand Slam semifinal she ousted Jookkarae Mensarb in straight sets. In the final, Vladimirescu lost to Roland Garros champion Pamela Bowden 6-4, 3-6, 7-5. As a result of her Wimbledon performance, she rose from 43 to 23 in the rankings. Chan/Vladimirescu won their 2nd title, and Vladimirescu's 3rd title overall in Budapest defeating Yanina Wickmayer and Berenika Wojnarowska avenging their Roland Garros loss. In Palermo, she made her 3rd final of the year, losing to Giuseppina Benedetti in two close sets. In the summer hard court season Cristina failed to progess past the quarter finals of any event in singles, and achieved limited success in doubles, Until reaching the doubles final in Dallas losing to Fleri Hingisafrilia and Kathleen Pryde-Degman. In the US Open, she lost in the 3rd round and 2nd round of singles and doubles. She then suffered three first round losses in singles in Quebec, Guangzhou, and Tokyo. She snapped her losing streak in Beijing where she defeated doubles parter Chan before losing to Ella Felivitch in the quarter finals. She ended the year qualifying for the FWTT Championships in Istanbul winning only two matches, one in singles and one in doubles. She ended the year in the top 20 in both singles and doubles for the first time in her career.
2012[]
In her first event of the year, Vladimirescu made her fourth main tour final in Brisbane, but lost to wildcard Ariel Aries, in doubles she made the semifinals partnering Chan. In singles she then suffered early round losses in Sydney, The Australian Open, Paris, Doha, Dubai, Kuala Lumpur, and Indian Wells. Again partnering Chantal Chan they won their biggest title yet in Indian Wells as the 7th seeds defeating Australian Open champs Alexandra Anastadis and Cornelia du Preez 4/6, 7/6(6), 7/5 in the final. After suffering an early loss in doubles, she then broke out of her singles slump in Miami where she made the semi-finals before losing to Yoona Im in three tough sets. Her success was short lived as her poor form has come back and suffered early losses in singles and doubles in Charleston, Barcelona, Stuttgart, Budapest, Madrid, Rome, and Brussels. In the French Open, as the 12th seed she was upset by Stefania di Francesca-Beck in three sets. As the 11th seed and finalist the year before Vladimirescu lost in the 2nd round to Cornelia du Preez in a tough three set match. This loss caused her to drop out of the top 20. Vladimirescu then reitred saying "I just don't like tennis anymore, maybe one day I will make a comeback...but not anytime soon".
2014[]
After almost 2 years away from the tour Cristina-Elena announced she would be making a comeback during the grass season. In her comeback tournament she lost 6/3, 0/6, 6/3 to Anna Konnikova. Her next event was s'-Hertogenbosch, where she lost to 3rd seed Jennifer Casanova in the first round.
Singles performance timeline[]
| Tournament | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | W–L |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grand Slam Tournaments | ||||||
| Australian Open | A | 2R | 1R | A | A | 1-2 |
| French Open | A | 1R | 1R | A | A | 0-2 |
| Wimbledon | A | F | 2R | A | 6-2 | |
| US Open | 1R | 3R | A | A | 2-2 | |
| Win–Loss | 0-1 | 8-4 | 0–2 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 8-7 |
| Year End Championships | ||||||
| FWTT YEC Championships | A | RR | A | A | A | 1-2 |
| Tournament of Champions | A | A | A | A | A | 0–0 |
| Olympic Games | ||||||
| Summer Olympics | Not Held | A | Not Held | 0–0 | ||
| WTA Premier Mandatory Tournaments | ||||||
| Indian Wells | A | 1R | 2R | A | A | 0-2 |
| Miami | A | 1R | SF | A | A | 3-2 |
| Madrid | A | 3R | 2R | A | A | 2-2 |
| Beijing | A | QF | A | A | 2-1 | |
| WTA Premier 5 Tournaments | ||||||
| Dubai | A | A | A | A | NP5 | 0-0 |
| Doha | Not Held | NP5 | 2R | A | A | 0-1 |
| Rome | A | 2R | 2R | A | A | 1–2 |
| Canada | Q2 | 3R | A | A | 3-2 | |
| Cincinnati | Q1 | 3R | A | A | 2-2 | |
| Tokyo | 1R | 1R | A | A | 0-2 | |