Player of the week: Alexandra Dulgheru

With her victory last week in Warsaw, 19 years old Romanian Alexandra Dulgheru has entered WTA's history as one of the few players to win a title being ranked outside the Top #200, and the first one to do it in a Premier event.


Despite her great progression this year, climbing from #385 to #201 in the rankings, no one expected that Dulgheru could go so far, especially after going through the qualy round with some difficulties, having to come back from a set down against Lenka Wienerova and Anna Korzeniak. But in the Main Draw everything was completely different as she got a place in the semifinals without dropping a set with very convincing victories over Agnes Szatmari, Sara Errani and Galina Voskoboeva. The semifinal seemed the end of the road for Dulgheru, as she was facing former Top-5 Daniela Hantuchova, but Dulgheru took the match in three sets. And again in the final Alona Bondarenko looked as the favourite, as she had been playing a very solid tennis throughout the week, but Dulgheru didn't want a sad end for her amazing run and after coming back to win the first set in the tie-break and losing the second, she swept Bondarenko in the third by 6/0.


With this victory Dulgheru has entered the Top-100, gaining 118 places to #83. A new face for the WTA Tour and definitively someone to keep an eye on.