Athlete of the week
Tennis player Miriam Bulgaru
Radio România Internațional, 17.09.2024, 13:45
The third edition of the Ţiriac Foundation Trophy tennis tournament has recently come to end in Bucharest. Hosted by the National tennis center in Bucharest, in 2024 the WTA 125 tournament had 115, 000 USD up for grabs. All the 8 seeded tennis player of the tournament were some of world’s top 200 players. Among them, great names of Romanian tennis, such as veteran tennis player Irina Begu and the surprise of the 2024 edition, Anca Todoni.
However, the winner was a player who, before her remarkable feat in Bucharest, was not one of the 200 players according to world rankings. Miriam Bulgaru is WTA 202nd tennis player. Her win in Bucharest is her career-peak so far. Reason enough for Radio Romania International to designate Miriam Bulgaru the Athlete of the week.
As part of the Ţiriac Foundation Trophy, in the first round Miriam Bulgaru outclassed Italy’s Nicole Fossa Huergo, cu 6-1, 6-3. In the second round, Miriam Bulgaru defeated Serbia’s Dejana Radanovic, 6-4, 6-4. In the quarterfinals Miriam defeated Alevtina Ibraghimova of Russia, 6-2 , 6-2. It was not until the semi-final confrontation that she lost the first set, when Bulgaru played Georgia’s Ekaterine Gorgodze, eventually winning the match, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2.
In the final, Bulgaru went against Liechtenstein’s Kathinka von Deichmann, who, in the quarterfinals, outclassed the top-seed tennis player, Argentina’s Marie Lourdes Carle. Miriam Bulgaru won the first set, 6-3. von Deichmann won the second set, 6-1. However, the decisive set was won by the Romanian, 6-4. The winner was rewarded with 15,000 USD, also skipping 24 places according to world rankings. So far Miriam has reached her career peak, the 178th-position.
Miriam Bulgaru was born on October 8, 1988 in the central Romania town of Alba Iulia. Miriam made her debut in the WTA circuit in 2018, at the Bucharest Open, where she was granted a wild card. However, in the first round she lost to China’s Wang Yafan. So far Miriam has won three ITF tournaments. Her net income so far amounts to more than 300,000 USD.
