Athlete of the Week
Florin Orban, 17.08.2021, 11:29
North America has recently become
home to top international tennis competitions. These are presently being hosted
by the United States and Canada before the upcoming US Open in Flushing
Meadows, due to kick off on August 30th. The Canadian city of
Toronto last week hosted a major tennis tournament with total prize of more
than 2,850,000 dollars. Romania was represented only by Horia Tecau, who,
together with German player Kevin Krawietz, had made it to the semifinals. The
Romanian-German pair was eventually stopped in its tracks by top-seeded Nikola
Mektic and Mate Pavic of Croatia who won the game 7-6, 7-6.
For his performance in Toronto,
Radio Romania international has designated Horia Tecau athlete of the week.
Tecau, who comes 20th in
ATP doubles ranking, was born in Brasov, southern Romania on January 19th
1985 and took up tennis at the age of 7. In 2002 he became champion in the
under-21 competition in Wimbledon together with his compatriot Florin Mergea.
He turned professional a year later and since 2008 he has been among the
world’s top 100 players.
In November 2009 he joined the
world’s best 50 players and has gone up in the doubles ranking until the second
position, which he occupied in November 2015 after his winning together with
his Dutch teammate Jean Julien Rojer the Champions Tournament in London. Tecau
and his compatriot Florin Mergea became silver medalists in the doubles contest
of the Olympic Games in Rio. In the mixed doubles Tecau should have played
together with Simona Halep, Romania’s best female player at present.
Unfortunately, injuries have prevented Halep from playing in Tokyo.
(bill)
