Spotlight On ... Iona Raluca Olaru

Iona Raluca Olaru is a Romanian tennis player who recently made the final in WTA Bad Gastein (l. to Andrea Petkovic). Along the way, she beat top seed Alize Cornet, 3rd seed Sybille Bammer and 6th seed Magdalena Rybarikova to record the best result of her career so far.

Having started the 2009 season outside of the season with early exits aplenty, she didn't even re-enter the top 100 until just before Roland Garros, after reaching the quarter-finals in Warsaw. An ITF title in Marseille (d. 3rd seed and top 100 player, Tathiana Garbin, in the quarter-finals) cemented her place in the top 100. The final in Bad Gastein saw her rise to a career-high ranking of # 53.

Click here to read Iona's 'Getting To Know ...' interview on the WTA website