Elena-Gabriela Ruse

Ruse won two junior singles titles and eight junior doubles titles. The biggest title of her junior career was the Grade-1 Canadian Open Junior Championships, where she beat Katie Swan in the final. Ruse also reached the semifinals of Junior Wimbledon in 2014 and the final of Eddie Herr.

When Ruse finished her junior career, she still did not have a professional ranking. In July 2015, she received a wildcard into the qualifying draw of the 2015 BRD Bucharest Open and beat Alexandra Cadantu in the first round. She lost her next match to Maria Sakkari. She reached semifinals at $10k events in Bucharest and Antalya and finished 2015 with a year-end ranking of 642 in singles and 575 in doubles.

In November 2015, Ruse won her first professional singles title at a $10k event in Antalya, beating Ekaterine Gorgodze in the final. In January 2016, she qualified for the $25k event in Sunrise, beating former top-30 player Laura Robson along the way, and reached the quarterfinals. After that event, she won ten singles matches and eight doubles matches in a row and won two singles and two doubles titles at $10k events in Antalya. In March, Ruse reached two straight finals at $10k events in Hammamet, Tunisia. She lost the first one to Claudia Giovine in straight sets, snapping her 14-match winning streak in singles, and in the second one she beat Julia Grabher. At the end of April, Ruse qualified for a $25k event in Chiasso, Switzerland and reached the semifinals, where she lost to fellow qualifier Amanda Carreras.

After taking time off for her high school graduation, Ruse returned to competition in June at a $50k event in Essen, Germany. As the last direct acceptance, Ruse shocked top seed Aliaksandra Sasnovich in three sets for her first win over a top-100 player. Due to rain delays in Essen, Ruse had to play her second-round match the same day and lost in straight sets to Spanish qualifier Olga Sáez Larra.