Raluca Sandu (born 3 February 1980) is a

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, a ...

n retired

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball c ...

player and professional padel player. On 18 January 1999, she reached her highest WTA singles ranking of 68 whilst her best doubles ranking was 228 on 13 September 1999. Raluca turned pro at the age of 15 and reached WTA top 100 by the time she was 17 years old. She was also ranked top 10 in the world ITF juniors ranking, reaching the semifinals at the 1995 US Open. Raluca was forced to retire early due to shoulder injury (2004).

Personal

Raluca is the daughter of former Romanian football player and former president of the

Romanian Football Federation Romanian Football Federation (), also known by its acronym FRF, is the governing body of football in Romania. They are headquartered in the capital city of Bucharest and affiliated to FIFA and UEFA since 1923 and 1955 respectively. The Federati ...

Mircea Sandu Mircea Traian Sandu (born 22 October 1952 in Bucharest) is a retired Romanian footballer and president of the Romanian Football Federation. Career Mircea Sandu, nicknamed "Nașul" (The Godfather) was born on 22 October 1952 in Bucharest and sta ...

and her late mother,

Simona Arghir Simona Arghir-Sandu (née Arghir; 4 September 1948 – 2 September 1995) was a Romanian handballer who played for the Romania national team. She also competed in the 1976 Summer Olympics, being part of the Romanian team which finished 4th and ...

former handball player and captain of Romanian national handball team. Raluca has one more sibling, older brother Dan Mircea. In her youth she was dating former world number 1 Carlos Moya for two years.

ITF Circuit finals

Singles (4–7)

Doubles (1–2)

Head-to-head records

''Players who have been ranked world No. 1 are in boldface.'' * Magdalena Maleeva 1-0 * Anna Kournikova 1-1 *

Elena Dementieva Elena Viacheslavovna Dementieva (, ; born 15 October 1981) is a Russian former professional tennis player. She won the singles gold medal at the Tennis at the 2008 Summer Olympics, 2008 Olympics in Beijing, having previously won the silver meda ...

1-0 *

Amélie Mauresmo Amélie Simone Mauresmo (; born 5 July 1979) is a French former world No. 1 tennis player and tournament director. Mauresmo won two major singles titles at the 2006 Australian Open and Wimbledon Championships, and also won the silver medal in ...

1–0 *

Svetlana Kuznetsova Svetlana Aleksandrovna Kuznetsova (born 27 June 1985) is a Russian inactive professional tennis player. She is a two-time major singles champion, winning the 2004 US Open and 2009 French Open, and finishing runner-up at two other majors. ...

1-0 * Patty Schnyder 0–1 *

Serena Williams Serena Jameka Williams (born September 26, 1981) is an American inactive professional tennis player. Considered among the greatest tennis players of all time, she was ranked world No. 1 in singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) fo ...

0–1 * Conchita Martínez Granados 1-0 *

Jelena Kostanić Jelena, also written Yelena and Elena, is a Slavic given name. It is a Slavicized form of the Greek name Helen, which is of uncertain origin. Diminutives of the name include Jelica, Jelka, Jele, Jela, Lena, Lenotschka, Jeca, Lenka, and Alena. N ...

0–1 *

Elena Vesnina Elena Sergeyevna Vesnina (born 1 August 1986) is a Russian former professional tennis player and a former world No. 1 in doubles. She is a four-time Grand Slam champion, having won the 2013 French Open, 2014 US Open, and 2017 Wimbledon C ...

1–0

References

External links

* * * 1980 births Living people Tennis players from Bucharest Female tennis players playing padel Romanian female tennis players {{Romania-tennis-bio-stub