Jaqueline Adina Cristian (born 5 June 1998) is a professional tennis player from Romania.
She has career-high rankings of world No. 57 in singles and No. 168 in doubles.
Cristian has won 14 singles and ten doubles titles on the ITF Circuit.[1][2]
In September, she reached her first semifinal at a WTA tournament at the Astana Open.[5] She reached the quarterfinals of the first edition of the Transylvania Open as a wildcard where she lost to top seed Simona Halep. She began a tradition of wearing a Dracula-like cape on court before or after her matches there.[6] She reached the top 100 on 8 November 2021.[7]
At the Upper Austria Ladies Linz, she reached the final as a lucky loser following Halep's withdrawal due to injury from the semifinal[8] but lost to Alison Riske in three sets.[9] As a result, she moved 29 positions up in the rankings, having been ranked world No. 100 at the beginning of the tournament.[citation needed]
2022: Major & WTA 1000 debuts & first wins, top 60, hiatus
Cristian made her Grand Slam tournament debut in Melbourne, at the Australian Open[10] where she won her first round match against Greet Minnen,[11] before losing to Madison Keys.[12] As a result, she reached a new career-high ranking of No. 58 on 31 January 2022.[citation needed]
She made her WTA 1000 debut at the Qatar Open as a lucky loser and defeated 11th seed Elena Rybakina for her first win at this level.[13] Having won the first set, she retired in her second round match against Daria Kasatkina.[14]
She returned after six months of hiatus to make her debut at the US Open where she lost to second seed Anett Kontaveit.[15]
2023–2024: Three WTA 1000 third rounds, first top 10 win
In the end of January 2024, she entered the WTA 500 Linz Open as a lucky loser and defeated Nadia Podoroska. At home in Cluj-Napoca, she reached the semifinals for the first time in her career at the tournament. It was her first tour semifinal since July 2023 in Prague.[18]
She reached the third round at the WTA 1000 2024 Madrid Open by defeating Magdalena Fręch[20] and 22nd seed Barbora Krejčíková,[21] and moved up in the top 70 in the rankings. At the next WTA 1000, the Italian Open, she entered the main draw as a lucky loser replacing Barbora Krejčíková directly into the second round and defeated Elina Avanesyan to reach again the third round.[22]
At the Palermo Ladies Open, Cristian defeated Lucia Bronzetti[23] to make it through to the quarterfinals where she lost to top seed and eventual champion, Zheng Qinwen.[24] The following week she also reached the quarterfinals at the Iași Open but went out to Elina Avanesyan.[25]
In September 2024, at the WTA 1000 China Open, Cristian reached the third round for the third time at this level with her first career upset over a top 10 player, reigning Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejčíková, in three sets saving four match points.[26][27] She was eliminated from the tournament by another Czech player, Karolína Muchová.[28]
The following month, Cristian defeated Camila Osorio in three sets to make it into the second round at the Wuhan Open,[29] where she lost to fifth seed Zheng Qinwen.[30] She then lost in qualifying for the Ningbo Open but was advanced into the last 16 as a lucky loser, only to be beaten by Karolina Muchová.[31] Cristian then moved on to the Guangzhou Open, where she defeated Viktorija Golubic in three sets in the first round[32] to set up a meeting with Lucia Bronzetti in the round-of-16 which she lost.[33]
Performance timelines
Key
W
F
SF
QF
#R
RR
Q#
P#
DNQ
A
Z#
PO
G
S
B
NMS
NTI
P
NH
(W) winner; (F) finalist; (SF) semifinalist; (QF) quarterfinalist; (#R) rounds 4, 3, 2, 1; (RR) round-robin stage; (Q#) qualification round; (P#) preliminary round; (DNQ) did not qualify; (A) absent; (Z#) Davis/Fed Cup Zonal Group (with number indication) or (PO) play-off; (G) gold, (S) silver or (B) bronze Olympic/Paralympic medal; (NMS) not a Masters tournament; (NTI) not a Tier I tournament; (P) postponed; (NH) not held; (SR) strike rate (events won / competed); (W–L) win–loss record.
To avoid confusion and double counting, these charts are updated at the conclusion of a tournament or when the player's participation has ended.
^ abEdition is split into the two years due to COVID-19.
^ abThe first Premier 5 event of the year has switched back and forth between the Dubai Tennis Championships and the Qatar Ladies Open since 2009. Dubai was classified as a Premier 5 event from 2009 to 2011 before being succeeded by Doha for the 2012–2014 period. In 2015, Dubai regained its Premier 5 status while Doha was demoted to Premier status. The Premier 5 tournaments were reclassified as WTA 1000 tournaments in 2021.
^2013: WTA ranking-1053, 2014: WTA ranking-1244, 2015: WTA ranking-827, 2016: WTA ranking-363.
^Withdrew during the tournament. Not counted as a loss.
^During the season, she did not play in the main draw of any tour-level tournaments. However, she played at the Billie Jean King Cup, which is not counted as a played tournament but matches count.
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