Background
Spirlea, Irina was born on March 26, 1974 in Bucharest.
Spirlea, Irina was born on March 26, 1974 in Bucharest.
Spîrlea reached her highest individual ranking on the Women's Tennis Association Tour on 13 October 1997, when she became number 7 in the world. She retired in 2000.
In 1996 Spîrlea became the first player in the history of the Women"s Tennis Association to receive a match default for conduct when she swore at an official in "gutter Italian" during a match played in Palermo, Italy. Spîrlea is known for a bumping incident with Venus Williams during a changeover in the semi-finals of the 1997 United States Open.
Spîrlea collided with Williams near the Netto post while changing ends, claiming that Venus Williams was arrogant and didn"t move.
Spîrlea went on to lose the match 6–7, 6–4, 6–7 in a third-set tiebreak, after holding two match points, at 6–4 and 6–5 in the tie breaker. Williams" father blamed Spîrlea"s racism as the cause of the collision and later called her an "ugly, white turkey".
Spîrlea cited Williams" arrogance, saying in a press conference following the match, "I"m not going to move. She never tries to turn" and "She thinks she"s the (expletive) Venus Williams." Williams however shrugged off the confrontation saying "I thought we both weren"t looking.
I"m sorry she feels that way.
lieutenant"s not a big thing to medical Number one said "Excuse me". Singles: 10 (4–6)
Doubles: 13 (6–7)
A = did not participate in the tournament.
10 or higher is as follows:
Players who have been ranked World Number.
1 are in boldface.