Arantxa Rus is a Dutch professional tennis player who was born on December 13, 1990, in Monster, the Netherlands. After being introduced to the sport at the age of 5 by her parents Lous and Judith, she quickly progressed up the ranks.
This talent then translated itself onto the junior tour, with Rus winning the 2008 girls’ title at the Australian Open. Later that same year, she became the junior world number one, rounding off a memorable junior stint.
Her debut in the main draw of a WTA event came the year prior to that success, with her appearing in the first round of the Ordina Open in her home country. 2008 was her first chance to get some real results at WTA level, though, and she managed to get to her first quarter-final, at a 250 event in China.
2009 brought round her first taste of a Grand Slam main draw. After coming through the qualifying event at Roland Garros, she won her first first-round match at a major, only to see her emerging winning streak end at the second bite of the cherry.
2012 was a real stand-out year for the Dutch woman, with her first achieving her career-best result at a Grand Slam, reaching the fourth round of the French Open. She backed up this performance with a third-round appearance at Wimbledon and the feeling of making inroads into the WTA Rankings.
Despite a record-equalling, and not in a good way, start to 2013 (clocking up 17 straight WTA losses), things picked up at the Bad Gastein Open, where she reached the quarter-finals. This was not enough to persuade her to stay on the WTA Tour, and she spent the foreseeable seasons on the ITF Tour.
Making a return in 2017, the woman from Monster won her first WTA title, in the doubles event in Bastad. Gradually recovering lost ranking points, the next couple of years proved promising on the results, and therefore ranking, front.
2023 was really the year things started to pick back up again, with Rus claiming her maiden WTA singles title. Her luck turned around at the Hamburg Open, where she beat Noma Noha Akugue in the final. Such a result helped her push her ranking up that season to a career-high of world number 41.
