Sports Weekend

A look at the latest Romanian sporting performances

Florin Orban, 04.09.2020, 13:45

Romanian tennis player Sorana
Cîrstea has qualified for the third round of US Open after a 2-6, 7-6, 6-4 win
against Johanna Konta of Britain. The 77th WTA Romanian player
needed 2 hours and 49 minutes to outperform an opponent with a better position
in international ranking. We recall that Konta comes 13th in the
world standings and was seeded 9th in US Open.

Cîrstea managed to save two
break points as her opponent pushed for the advantage at both 4-4 and 5-5 and
the Romanian seized her chance in the tie-break, clinching her set point with
an ace. In the third set Cirstea managed a break at 3-3, which proved decisive
in a game that was also her first win against the British challenger.

The two first met three
years ago in the second round of the Eastbourne tournament when Konta obtained
a two-set win 6-2, 6-2. Cirstea has now equaled her best performance in US Open
namely a qualification for the third round, which she also managed in 2009 and
2019. The win brought her 163 thousand dollars and 130 WTA points.

The Romanian will be up
against 30th-seeded Karolina Muchova in the next round; the 26th
WTA Czech player comes after a 6-3, 7-6 win against Ana Kalinskaya of Russia
and after a first-round 6-3, 7-5 victory against Venus Williams.

Another Romanian player in
the US Open, Patricia Tig has been outperformed by Donna Vekic of Croatia 6-2,
6-1. Having qualified for the second round has brought the Romanian a check of
100 thousand dollars and 70 WTA points.

And now the latest from
handball. Romanian women’s handball side CSM Bucharest has qualified for the
Romanian Cup semifinals after a 34-17 win against CSM Slatina.

This has been the first
official handball game played in Romania after a 6-month recess imposed by the
Covid-19 pandemic. SCM Ramnicu Valcea versus HC Dunarea Braila was also
supposed to take place on Thursday, but HC withdrew from competition after nine
of its players tested positive for the novel coronavirus. SCM will be up
against Rapid Bucharest in the semis on Saturday while CSM takes on Gloria
Buzau. The finals is due on Sunday.

(translated
by bill)