Cristina Bucsa Bucsa (born 1 January 1998), known as Cristina Bucșa, is a Moldovan-born Spanish professional tennis player. She has career-high rankings of No. 56 in singles, achieved on 15 January 2024, and of No. 19 in doubles, achieved on 10 June 2024.[2] She won a bronze medal in women's doubles at the 2024 Summer Olympics.
Early life
Cristina Bucșa was born in Chișinău, Moldova. Her father, Ion Bucșa, is a former Olympic biathlete who was Moldova's flag bearer at the 1998 and 2002 Winter Olympics.[3][4] When she was three years old, her family moved to Cantabria in northern Spain; they originally moved to Las Fraguas before settling in Torrelavega.[5] Bucșa attended the Instituto Marqués De Santillana in Torrelavega, where she was awarded the title of Illustrious Alumna in December 2022.[6] She speaks Spanish, Romanian, English, and French.[7]
Bucșa began playing tennis at the age of five.[8][9] In 2014, she moved to Barcelona to train at the Centre d'Alt Rendiment de Sant Cugat del Vallès,[3][10] but in 2016 she moved back to Torrelavega where she currently lives and trains.[11] She is coached by her father, who is self-taught and also acts as her physiotherapist.[3][12] Being unsponsored, she buys her own kits and rackets for the tour.[11][13] She does not have any public social media profiles, only using Facebook to keep in touch with other tennis players.[14]
She received her Spanish passport in 2014 and began representing Spain in 2015.[3]
Bucșa reached the top 100 on 16 January 2023. She qualified for the Australian Open and recorded her first two wins at this major, defeating Eva Lys and Bianca Andreescu.[23][24] She then lost to world No. 1, Iga Świątek, in the third round.[25][26] This was her best result at a Grand Slam tournament thus far.[27] At the Lyon Open, she won her first doubles title with Bibiane Schoofs.[28] As a result, she reached a new career-high doubles ranking of No. 61 on 6 February 2023. At Indian Wells, she reached the second round of a WTA 1000 for the first time in her career, defeating Katie Swan as a qualifier.[29]
Bucșa began her season in Brisbane and reached the doubles semifinal with her partner Alexandra Panova.[39] She qualified for Adelaide as a lucky loser in singles and defeated Jasmine Paolini, before losing to top seed Elena Rybakina in the second round.[40][41] Following this, she reached a new career-high singles ranking of No. 56, on 15 January 2024. At the Australian Open, she reached the doubles quarterfinals with Panova.[42][43] As a result, she reached the top 50 in doubles.[2] Continuing her campaign on hardcourts, Bucșa participated in the Abu Dhabi Open where, as a lucky loser, she reached the quarterfinals and, once again, lost to top seed Elena Rybakina.[44] In Doha, she and partner Monica Niculescu reached the doubles quarterfinal.[45] Bucșa then made her debut at the Dubai Championships where she replaced, also as a lucky loser, fifth seed Ons Jabeur into the second round, before losing to eventual finalist Anna Kalinskaya.[46]
Seeded fourth in singles in Bogotá, Bucșa defeated You Xiaodi and Jule Niemeier, before losing to her doubles partner Kamilla Rakhimova in the quarterfinals.[47] Bucșa and Rakhimova later won the doubles title in Bogotá defeating the third-seeded team of Anna Bondár and Irina Khromacheva in the final, bringing Bucșa to a career-high doubles ranking of No. 38, on 8 April 2024.[48] In Madrid, Bucșa defeated Harriet Dart, before losing to tenth seed Daria Kasatkina in the second round.[49][50] In doubles, seeded eighth, she and compatriot Sara Sorribes Tormo won the title after defeating Barbora Krejčíková and Laura Siegemund in the final, becoming the first all-Spanish doubles team to win the 1000 tournament in Madrid.[51][52][53] This was her first WTA 1000 title and brought her to a career-high doubles ranking of No. 27 on 6 May 2024.[54][55] The following month, Bucșa won her first WTA 500 doubles title in Strasbourg, partnering Niculescu and defeating Asia Muhammad and Aldila Sutjiadi in the final.[56] En route to the title, Bucșa and Niculescu upset the second-seeded team of Demi Schuurs and Luisa Stefani in the semifinal.[57]
Bucșa achieved her first French Open singles victory against qualifier Yuliia Starodubtseva in the first round,[58] before losing to Elisabetta Cocciaretto in the second.[59] In doubles, she and Niculescu upset the 14th-seeded team of Sofia Kenin and Bethanie Mattek-Sands in the second round.[60] Following the pair's third-round run at the French Open, Bucșa achieved a career high doubles ranking of No. 19 and surpassed Sorribes Tormo as the top Spanish female doubles player on 10 June 2024.[61][62]
She made her Olympic debut in Paris where she reached the second round in singles with a win over Petra Martić.[63] Seeded eighth in doubles with Sara Sorribes Tormo, they won the bronze medal.[64]
At the 2024 China Open, she reached the fourth round of a WTA 1000 for the first time in her career, defeating wildcard Yao Xinxin, and then upsetting 11th seed and previous year finalist Liudmila Samsonova in three sets, her second top 20 victory,[65][66] and 24th seed Elise Mertens.
Performance timelines
Key
W
F
SF
QF
#R
RR
Q#
P#
DNQ
A
Z#
PO
G
S
B
NMS
NTI
P
NH
(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.
^ abcdThe first Premier 5 event of the year has switched back and forth between the Dubai Tennis Championships and the Qatar Ladies Open since 2009 until 2024. Dubai was classified as a Premier 5 event from 2009–2011 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.
^Qualified directly into the second round as a lucky loser. Counted as zero wins and one loss.
^2013: WTA ranking - 1203, 2014: WTA ranking - 1193, 2015: WTA ranking - 757, 2016: WTA ranking - 798, 2017: WTA ranking - 415, 2018: WTA ranking - 346.
^2015: WTA ranking - 1167, 2016: WTA ranking - 1278, 2017: WTA ranking - 284, 2018: WTA ranking - 172.