Sports Flash

News from tennis, handball, volleyball and basketball

România Internațional, 23.03.2023, 13:45

The Romanian tennis player Sorana Cîrstea started off on the right foot at the WTA 1000 tournament in Miami. In the first round, she defeated Fernanda Contreras Gomez, of Mexico, 7-6, 6-2. In the next round, she will take on no 4 in the world, Caroline Garcia, of France, whom she defeated last week in the Indian Wells eighth-finals, 6-4, 4-6, 7-5. Also on Wednesday, Ana Bogdan lost to the US player Robin Montgomery, 3-6, 6-3, 6-3.

In the first leg of the playoffs for the mens handball Champions League quarter-finals, Dinamo Bucharest played at home against the German side THW Kiel. The guests won, 41 – 28, the harshest defeat for the Romanian champions this season. The second leg is scheduled next Wednesday in Kiel. The qualifying team will be facing the French side Paris Saint-Germain in the quarter-finals.

CSM Lugoj lost the second leg of the womens volleyball Challenge Cup final, against the Italian side Chieri. The Italians won in Timisoara on Wednesday, 3-0, the same score reported at the end of the first leg in Turin as well. CSM Lugoj was the 3rd Romanian team to reach the finals of the Challenge Cup, after CSM Bucharest, which won the trophy in 2016, and Volei Alba Blaj, which lost the final in 2021. For CSM Lugoj, this was the best season in history, the Challenge Cup final adding to their winning the Romanian Cup Winners Cup.

We wrap up today with basketball. U-BT Cluj-Napoca Wednesday lost at home to Ukraines Prometey Slobojanske, 96-87, in the last match at home in the EuroCup Group A. Irrespective of the result of the last match, against the German side Ulm, the Romanian champions will remain 9th in the group, and only the top 8 teams in each group qualify into the round of 16. (AMP)