Lara Arruabarrena · Biography

In February 2012, on the clay of the Copa Colsanitas in Bogotá, Lara Arruabarrena Vecino won her first WTA title by beating Russia’s Alexandra Panova 6-2, 7-5 in the final. Born on 20 March 1992 in Tolosa, in the Basque province of Gipuzkoa, the right-hander with a two-handed backhand played professionally from 2007 to 2022. Over that span she won two WTA singles titles and eight in doubles, and reached No. 52 in the singles rankings and No. 28 in doubles.

Early years in Tolosa and Barcelona

Arruabarrena took up tennis at the age of eight. At fifteen she moved to Barcelona to train with the Spanish Tennis Federation. She played her first ITF events in 2007 and went on to collect several titles at $10,000 tournaments. As a junior she reached the girls’ doubles final at the 2010 French Open alongside María Teresa Torró Flor, where the Spanish pair lost 6-2, 6-3 to Hungary’s Tímea Babos and American Sloane Stephens. She was coached by Andoni Vivanco, and clay was her preferred surface.

From Bogotá to Katowice

After the Bogotá title, she reached the second round of the 2012 US Open. In February 2013 she won the Copa Bionaire in Cali, a WTA 125 event, beating Colombia’s Catalina Castaño 6-3, 6-2 in the final. Two months later, in April 2013, she claimed her first WTA doubles title on the indoor clay of Katowice, partnering Lourdes Domínguez Lino to a 6-4, 7-5 win in the final.

A doubles specialist

Doubles brought her the most silverware. In 2014 she won Bogotá with France’s Caroline Garcia and the Korea Open in Seoul with Romania’s Irina-Camelia Begu. In February 2015 she took the Mexican Open in Acapulco with María Teresa Torró Flor, winning the deciding tiebreak 13-11, and in September she won Seoul again with Slovenia’s Andreja Klepač. That year she also lost finals in Nuremberg, Gastein, Washington and Hong Kong, and reached the US Open quarter-finals. In 2016 she added Bogotá with Germany’s Tatjana Maria and Gstaad with Switzerland’s Xenia Knoll, and on 22 February that year she rose to No. 28 in the doubles rankings.

Seoul 2016 and a career-high ranking

In September 2016 she won her second singles title at the Korea Open, defeating Romania’s Monica Niculescu 6-0, 2-6, 6-0 in the final. At the majors she reached the second round of the Australian Open and Wimbledon in both 2015 and 2016. At the 2015 China Open she had beaten world No. 2 Simona Halep, who retired trailing 5-4 in the first set. In 2017 she defeated Madison Keys 7-5, 7-5 in the third round in Miami, lost the Bogotá final to Francesca Schiavone and, on 3 July, reached a career-high No. 52 in singles. In October 2017 she beat Svetlana Kuznetsova, then ranked eighth, 6-7, 7-5, 6-1 in Beijing.

Final seasons and retirement

In 2018 she played her third Bogotá final, losing to Slovakia’s Anna Karolína Schmiedlová, and reached the second round at all four Grand Slam events. In doubles she made the French Open quarter-finals and the Gstaad final with Timea Bacsinszky. In September 2019 she won her eighth WTA doubles title in Seoul with Tatjana Maria, and in August that year she took the WTA 125 event in Karlsruhe with Czech partner Renata Voráčová. Her Fed Cup record was three wins and five defeats, and her tour singles record finished at 364 wins and 291 losses. Her last tournament was the 2022 Australian Open, and she announced her retirement in August 2022.