Irina Spîrlea

Irina Spîrlea

Country (sports)	Romania
Residence	Rome, Italy
Born	26 March 1974 Bucharest, Romania
Height	1.75 m (5 ft 9 in)
Turned pro	1990
Retired	2000
Plays	Right-handed (one handed-backhand)
Prize money	US$ 2,652,068
Singles
Career record	291–189
Career titles	4 WTA, 3 ITF
Highest ranking	No. 7 (13 October 1997)
Grand Slam Singles results
Australian Open	QF (1997)
French Open	4R (1994, 1996, 1997)
Wimbledon	4R (1997, 1998)
US Open	SF (1997)
Doubles
Career record	200–154
Career titles	6 WTA, 5 ITF
Highest ranking	No. 16 (2 October 1995)

Irina Spîrlea (born 26 March 1974 in Bucharest) is a former tennis player from Romania, who turned professional in 1990. She won four singles and six doubles titles during her career. Spîrlea reached her highest individual ranking on the WTA Tour on 13 October 1997, when she became number 7 in the world. She retired in 2000.

Personal life

Spîrlea married her former coach, Italian Massimiliano Pace, in 2001, and has a son, Tommaso, born in 2002, as well as a younger daughter, Francesca.^[1][2]

Career

Irina Spîrlea is one of the most successful Romanian female tennis players, being one of only three to have reached the top 10 (the others being Virginia Ruzici and Simona Halep.)^[3] Her best performance at a Grand Slam tournament was a semi-final at the US Open in 1997. She won the WTA's Newcomer of the Year award in 1994.^[4]

Controversies

In 1996 Spîrlea became the first player in the history of the Women's Tennis Association to receive a match default for conduct^[5] when she swore at an official in "gutter Italian" during a match played in Palermo, Italy.^[6]

Spîrlea is known for a bumping incident with Venus Williams during a changeover in the semi-finals of the 1997 US Open. Spîrlea collided with Williams near the net post while changing ends, claiming that Venus Williams was arrogant and didn't move. Spîrlea went on to lose the match 6–7, 6–4, 6–7 in a third-set tiebreak, after holding two match points, at 6–4 and 6–5 in the tie breaker. Williams' father blamed Spîrlea's racism as the cause of the collision and later called her an "ugly, white turkey".^[7] Spîrlea cited Williams' arrogance, saying in a press conference following the match, "I'm not going to move. She never tries to turn"^[8] and "She thinks she's the (expletive) Venus Williams."^[7] Williams however shrugged off the confrontation saying "I thought we both weren't looking. I'm sorry she feels that way. It's not a big thing to me. No one said 'Excuse me'.^[9]

WTA Tour Finals

Singles: 10 (4–6)

Winner — Legend Grand Slam tournaments (0–0) WTA Tour Championships (0–0) Tier I (0–2) Tier II (1–0) Tier III, IV & V / International (3–4)

Titles by Surface Hard (0–2) Grass (0–0) Clay (4–3) Carpet (0–1)

Outcome	No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent	Score
Runner-up	1.	27 September 1993	Sapporo	Carpet (I)	Linda Wild	4–6, 3–6
Runner-up	2.	25 April 1994	Taranto	Clay	Julie Halard-Decugis	2–6, 3–6
Winner	1.	4 July 1994	Palermo	Clay	Brenda Schultz-McCarthy	6–4, 1–6, 7–6^(7–5)
Runner-up	3.	2 January 1995	Jakarta	Hard	Sabine Hack	6–2, 6–7^(6–8), 4–6
Winner	2.	10 July 1995	Palermo	Clay	Sabine Hack	7–6^(7–1), 6–2
Winner	3.	8 April 1996	Amelia Island	Clay	Mary Pierce	6–7^(7–9), 6–4, 6–3
Runner-up	4.	3 March 1997	Indian Wells	Hard	Lindsay Davenport	2–6, 1–6
Runner-up	5.	30 March 1998	Hilton Head Island	Clay	Amanda Coetzer	3–6, 4–6
Winner	4.	18 May 1998	Strasbourg	Clay	Julie Halard-Decugis	7–6^(7–5), 6–3
Runner-up	6.	19 April 1999	Cairo	Clay	Arantxa Sánchez Vicario	1–6, 0–6

Doubles: 13 (6–7)

Winner — Legend Grand Slam tournaments (0–0) WTA Tour Championships (0–0) Tier I (1–1) Tier II (2–2) Tier III, IV & V / International (3–4)

Titles by Surface Hard (1–1) Grass (0–0) Clay (2–3) Carpet (3–3)

Outcome	No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Winner	1.	25 April 1994	Taranto	Clay	Noëlle van Lottum	Sandra Cecchini Isabelle Demongeot	6–3, 2–6, 6–1
Winner	2.	2 January 1995	Jakarta	Hard	Claudia Porwik	Laurence Courtois Nancy Feber	6–2, 6–3
Runner-up	1	24 April 1995	Zagreb	Clay	Laura Golarsa	Mercedes Paz Rene Simpson	5–7, 2–6
Runner-up	2.	29 January 1996	Tokyo	Carpet (I)	Mariaan de Swardt	Gigi Fernández Natasha Zvereva	6–7^(7–9), 3–6
Winner	3.	6 May 1996	Rome	Clay	Arantxa Sánchez Vicario	Gigi Fernández Martina Hingis	6–4, 3–6, 6–3
Runner-up	3.	4 November 1996	Oakland	Carpet (I)	Nathalie Tauziat	Lindsay Davenport Mary Joe Fernández	1–6, 3–6
Runner-up	4.	19 May 1997	Madrid	Clay	Inés Gorrochategui	Mary Joe Fernández Arantxa Sánchez Vicario	3–6, 2–6
Runner-up	5.	2 November 1998	Leipzig	Carpet (I)	Manon Bollegraf	Elena Likhovtseva Ai Sugiyama	3–6, 7–6^(7–2), 1–6
Runner-up	6.	4 January 1999	Gold Coast	Hard	Kristine Kunce	Corina Morariu Larisa Neiland	3–6, 3–6
Winner	4.	22 February 1999	Paris	Carpet (I)	Caroline Vis	Elena Likhovtseva Ai Sugiyama	7–5, 3–6, 6–3
Runner-up	7.	19 April 1999	Cairo	Clay	Caroline Vis	Laurence Courtois Arantxa Sánchez Vicario	7–5, 1–6, 6–7^(7–9)
Winner	5.	20 September 1999	Luxembourg	Carpet (I)	Caroline Vis	Tina Križan Katarina Srebotnik	6–1, 6–2
Winner	6.	25 October 1999	Linz	Carpet (I)	Caroline Vis	Tina Križan Larisa Neiland	6–4, 6–3

Grand Slam singles performance timeline

Tournament	1990	1991	1992	1993	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000	SR	W–L	W%
Grand Slam Tournaments
Australian Open	A	A	A	A	1R	4R	2R	QF	1R	1R	1R	0 / 7	8–7	53%
French Open	A	A	1R	A	4R	3R	4R	4R	1R	3R	1R	0 / 8	13–8	62%
Wimbledon	A	A	A	A	2R	3R	2R	4R	4R	1R	1R	0 / 7	10–7	59%
US Open	A	A	Q1	A	1R	1R	3R	SF	4R	3R	A	0 / 6	12–6	67%
Win–Loss	0–0	0–0	0–1	0–0	4–4	7–4	7–4	15–4	6–4	4–4	0–3	0 / 28	43–28	61%
Year-End Championships
Tour Championships	A	A	A	A	A	A	1R	SF	SF	A	A	0 / 3	4–3	57%
Tier I Tournaments
Tokyo	Tier II			A	A	A	2R	2R	QF	A	A	0 / 3	4–3	57%
Chicago	A	Tier II							Not Held			0 / 0	0–0	0%
Boca Raton	Tier II	A	A	Tier II			Not Held					0 / 1	0–1	0%
Indian Wells	Tier II							F	3R	2R	2R	0 / 5	8–5	62%
Miami	A	A	A	A	1R	2R	QF	QF	2R	2R	2R	0 / 7	8–7	53%
Charleston	A	A	A	A	1R	3R	QF	3R	F	2R	A	0 / 6	11–6	65%
Berlin	A	A	A	A	A	SF	A	3R	QF	1R	1F	0 / 5	7–5	58%
Rome	A	A	Q1	A	SF	3R	SF	QF	3R	3R	1R	0 / 8	15–8	65%
Montreal / Toronto	A	A	A	A	A	A	1R	1R	3R	1R	A	0 / 4	1–4	20%
Moscow	Tier V		Not Held		Tier III			QF	1R	A	A	0 / 2	1–2	33%
Zürich	Tier II			A	A	1R	2R	2R	SF	2R	A	0 / 5	6–5	55%
Philadelphia	NH	Tier II		A	A	QF	Tier II					0 / 4	5–4	56%
Career Statistics
Year-End Ranking	310	208	164	63	43	21	10	8	15	35	167

• A = did not participate in the tournament.
• SR = the ratio of the number of Grand Slam singles tournaments won to the number of those tournaments played.

Record against other top players

Spîrlea's win-loss record against certain players who have been ranked World No. 10 or higher is as follows:

Players who have been ranked World No. 1 are in boldface.

• Dominique Monami 6–3
• Arantxa Sánchez Vicario 5–5
• Mary Joe Fernández 4–0
• /Karina Habšudová 4–1
• Amanda Coetzer 4–4
• Julie Halard-Decugis 3–2
• Ai Sugiyama 3–2
• Mary Pierce 3–5
• //Monica Seles 3–5
• Barbara Schett 2–0
• Brenda Schultz-McCarthy 2–0
• Anna Kournikova 2–1
• Sandrine Testud 2–1
• Gabriela Sabatini 2–2
• Chanda Rubin 2–3
• /Natasha Zvereva 2–5
• Lori McNeil 1–0
• Paola Suárez 1–0
• Andrea Temesvári 1–0
• Nathalie Tauziat 1–2
• Serena Williams 1–3
• Venus Williams 1–3
• Conchita Martínez 1–4
• Barbara Paulus 1–4
• Lindsay Davenport 1–6
• Anke Huber 1–7
• Kimiko Date-Krumm 0–1
• Zina Garrison 0–1
• /Martina Navratilova 0–1
• Patty Schnyder 0–1
• Jennifer Capriati 0–2
• Steffi Graf 0–2
• Iva Majoli 0–3
• Martina Hingis 0–6
• /Jana Novotná 0–6

References

1. Article in Romanian
2. Article in Romanian
3. Article in Romanian
5. The Enquirer – This article is no longer available
6. CNN/SI – US Open Player Profiles
7. sportsillustrated.cnn.com
8. telegraph.co.uk
9. Father of tennis star Venus Williams charges racism during recent U.S. Open – Richard Williams|Jet|Find Articles at BNET.com

External links

• Irina Spîrlea at the Women's Tennis Association
• Irina Spîrlea at the International Tennis Federation
• Irina Spîrlea at the Fed Cup