The Romanian women’s Fed Cup team this weekend
\nobtained one of its biggest results in the last 50 years. Florin Segarceanu’s
\ntrainees qualified to the Fed Cup semi-finals, after winning 3-2 against the
\nCzech Republic away from home. The only time Romania reached as far as the
\nsemi-finals of this international competition was in 1973, when the tournament
\nwas called the Federation Cup. Back then, Virginia Ruzici, Mariana Simionescu
\nand Judith Gohn knocked out Brazil, Sweden and Great Britain as part of a
\n32-country tournament held in Bad Homburg, in the Federal Republic of Germany.
\nIn the semi-finals however Romania lost to South Africa.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Now, in Ostrava, Romania’s team was made up of
\nSimona Halep, Mihaela Buzarnescu, Irina Begu and Monica Niculescu. Simona and
\nMihaela played the singles matches, while Irina and Monica the doubles game. Two
\nof the three points for Romania were grabbed by Simona Halep, which is why we
\nhave designated her Athlete of the Week on RRI. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Simona Halep is currently ranked 3rd
\nin WTA singles rankings, after topping the tables for 64 weeks. Throughout her
\ncareer she won 18 WTA tournaments, including a major, last year in Roland
\nGarros. Born September 27, 1991 in Constanta, Simona Halep made her debut in
\n2006, the year she also won her first ITF tournaments. In 2010 she was ranked
\namong the Top 100 players in the world. In 2014, in August, she was ranked 2nd,
\nthe highest position ever achieved by a Romanian tennis player. In October 2017
\nshe became world number one, a position she kept until January 2018. She
\nreturned to the top of the WTA standings later that year in February, and
\nremained world leader until last month, when Naomi Osaka become world number one
\nafter winning the Australian Open. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Simona Halep contributed to Romania’s 3-2 win in the Fed Cup match against the Czech Republic<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":93,"featured_media":119130,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[40940],"tags":[29020,28900,41622],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-119129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sport","tag-fed-cup","tag-simona-halep","tag-the-czech-republic-wta-standings"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n