Sports weekend

The latest from tennis, women's handball and football

România Internațional, 02.02.2024, 13:45

Romania’s men’s tennis
team, in Athens this coming weekend goes against the national team of Greece,
in a play-off confrontation counting towards maintaining the position in Davis
Cup’s World Group I.

For the match against
Greece, Romania’s lineup is made of Marius Copil, Nicholas David Ionel, Cezar
Creţu, Luca Preda and Victor Cornea.

ATP 265th-placed Ionel and WTA 294th-placed
Copil are the Romanian lineup’ s best-placed tennis players according to men’s
singles rankings. In the men’s doubles, best-placed is Victor Cornea, ranking
65th. Of the Greek team, best-placed is WTA number 7, Stefanos
Tsitsipas.

In the Davis Cup, Romania and Greece have
twice gone against one another before. In 1933, in the Europe zone’s second
round in Athens, Greece won, 4-1. In 1970 in Bucharest, Romania won, 5-nil, in a
confrontation counting towards the Europe zone’s quarterfinals. Ilie Năstase,
Ion Ţiriac, Viorel Marcu and Sever Mureşan were Romania’s tennis players back
then, in the men’s singles confrontation. Ilie Nastase and Ion Tiriac proved their
mettle in the men’s doubles

This coming weekend will see matches being
played, counting towards the 12th round as part of the Women’s EHF
Champions League. In Group A on Saturday, CSM Bucharest play an away fixture
against top of the table team, Hungary’s Gyor, which has 11 points in a similar
number of matches played. CSM are 3rd-placed, after six wins and four defeats.

In Group B, on Sunday Rapid play a home
game against Ferencváros Budapest. Vice champions Rapid are 7th-placed,
while Ferencvaros, 6th, with three wins each. The first two teams in
each group play straight in the quarterfinals, while 3rd, 4th, 5th
and 6th-placed teams will prove their mettle in the playoffs for a
place in the quarterfinals.

Three Romanian
teams play in Europe’s second-tier competition, the EHF European League. On
Saturday, in Group D, CSM Târgu Jiu play a home match against Norway’s Sola. After
the first three rounds, CSM Targu jIu were unable to add a point to their record
sheet. In Croatia on Sunday, Dunărea Brăila face Group B’s bottom-of-the-table
team, Lokomotiva Zagreb. With four points, Dunarea Braila are the runner-up
team in the group, after Thüringer of Germany. Also on Sunday, Gloria Bistriţa play an away game against French team Nantes.
In Group C, with an equal number of points, five, Gloria and Nantes are at the
top of the table. However, Nantes have a better goal average.

Matches
counting the 24th round as part of Romanian Football Super league
are scheduled at the weekend. On Friday, FC Botoşani play Poli Iasi and FC U
Craiova face Dinamo Bucharest. On Saturday in Ploiesti the local side Petrolul take
on CFR Cluj, then in Bucharest, Rapid face Oţelul Galaţi. On Sunday, Universitatea
Cluj play a home game against UTA, while in Sfântu Gheorghe, Universitatea
Craiova play Sepsi. On Monday, FC Voluntari are pitted against Hermannstadt and
FCSB play Farul Constanţa. 11
points clear of the 2nd and 3rd-placed teams, CFR and Rapid, FCSB
are at the top of the as-it-stands table.