Sports Roundup

News from tennis, women's handball, chess and football

Florin Orban, 08.05.2023, 13:45

The
Romanian tennis player Sorana Cîrstea won the WTA 100 held in Reus, Spain. On
Sunday she defeated Elizabeth Mandlik (US) 6-1, 4-6, 7-6. For this achievement,
Sorana was awarded EUR 13,000 and 160 WTA points. Another performance for
Romanian tennis players last week was Gabriela Ruse’s qualifying into the
semi-finals of the doubles competition of the WTA 1000 tournament in Madrid, together
with Marta Kostiuk (Ukraine). The two athletes were defeated by seeds no. 1 Jessica
Pegula / Coco Gauff (US), 7-5, 7-6 in the match for the final. Ruse and Kostiuk
received 390 WTA points.

Both teams
representing Romania at the women’s handball Champions League left the
competition after the quarter-finals. On Saturday, Rapid Bucharest lost to Vipers
Kristiansand 40 – 31 in Norway, after Vipers had already won the first leg of
the match, in Bucharest, 31-25. On Sunday, Team Esbjerg, of Denmark, beat CSM
Bucharest, 33-31, in the Romanian capital city, after a previous 32-28 win at
home. The Hungarian teams Győr and Ferencváros are the other 2 teams qualified
into the final tournament of the Champions League, scheduled for June in
Budapest.

This
weekend saw the start of the largest chess tournament hosted by Bucharest:
Superbet Chess Classic Romania. Scores of the world’s top chess players are
taking part. Romania is represented by Bogdan Deac and Richard Rapport. After 2
rounds, 3 players are top of the tables with 1.5 points: Wesley So (US), rusul Ian
Nepomniachtchi (Russia) and Richard Rapport. The tournament offers USD 350,000
in total prize money and is the first round of the 2023 Grand Chess Tour.

Matches
were played over the weekend counting for the 7th leg of the play-off
/ play-out round of the Romanian football SuperLeague. In the play-out, on
Friday FC Voluntari Mioveni 1-0, and Petrolul defeated Chindia Târgovişte, 2-1.
On Saturday, FC Botoşani drew against Universitatea Clu, 0-0, with the last two
matches, pitting Hermannstadt against FC U Craiova and FC Argeş against UTA
Arad, scheduled for Monday.

In the
play-offs, on Saturday Farul Constanţa thrashed Rapid Bucharest, 7-2, while on
Sunday CFR Cluj and Universitatea Craiova drew, 1-1. In the last match of this
leg, FCSB are facing Sepsi Sfântu Gheorghe in Bucharest on Monday. Top of the
standings so far are Farul Constanta, with 46 points, followed by FCSB (40). (AMP)