Jaqueline Adina Cristian (born 5 June 1998) is a professional tennis player from Romania.
Cristian has career-high WTA rankings of No. 58 in singles and No. 168 in doubles. She has won 14 singles and ten doubles titles on the ITF Circuit.[1][2]
She reached the quarterfinals of a WTA event for the first time as a qualifier at the WTA 500 St. Petersburg Ladies' Trophy where she lost to fourth seed Svetlana Kuznetsova. In September, she reached her first semifinal at a WTA tournament at the Astana Open.[3] 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.[4] She reached the top 100 on 8 November 2021.[5]
At the Linz Open, she reached the final as a lucky loser following Halep's withdrawal due to injury from the semifinal[6] but lost to Alison Riske in three sets.[7] As a result, she moved 29 positions up in the rankings, having been ranked world No. 100 at the beginning of the tournament.
2022: Major & WTA 1000 debuts & first wins, top 60, hiatus
She made her Grand Slam debut in Melbourne, at the Australian Open where she recorded her first major win against Greet Minnen.[8] As a result, she reached a new career-high ranking of No. 58 on 31 January 2022. At the same event, she reached the third round of the doubles draw on her debut, partnering Andrea Petkovic. She made her WTA 1000 debut at the Qatar Ladies Open as a lucky loser and defeated 11th seed Elena Rybakina for her first win at this level.
She returned after six months of hiatus to make her debut at the US Open where she lost to second seed Anett Kontaveit.
She entered the 2023 Australian Open, and the tournaments in Hobart, Linz, and Madrid, and lastly at Wimbledon where she recorded her first win at this major on her debut, using protected ranking.
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.[9]
She reached the third round at the WTA 1000 Madrid Open, defeating Magdalena Fręch[11] and 22nd seed Barbora Krejčíková,[12] and moved up in the top 70 in the rankings. At the next WTA 1000, the 2024 Italian Open, she entered the main draw as a lucky loser replacing 25th Barbora Krejčíková directly into the second round and defeated Elina Avanesyan to reach again round three.[13]
At the Palermo Ladies Open, Cristian defeated Lucia Bronzetti[14] to make it through to the quarterfinals where she lost to top seed and eventual champion Zheng Qinwen.[15] The following week she also reached the quarterfinals at the Iași Open but went out to Elina Avanesyan.[16]
(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.