Romanians at the Australian Open
Its only 4 days left until the end of the 2013 edition of Australian Open, the years first Grand Slam tournament. The main favourites, males and females, have by and large made it through to the tournaments final stages.
Ștefan Baciu, 23.01.2013, 13:41
Unfortunately, athletes representing Romania in this prestigious tennis competition didn’t live up to expectations. The best performance was put on by 27thseed Sorana Carstea, who lost in the third round to 6thseed Li Na from China, 4-6 and 1-6.
In the men’s singles competition, both our representatives Victor Hanescu and Adrian Ungur were edged out in the very first round.
The Romanian fans were hoping their favourites would cut a better figure in the doubles matches. But they were also in for another disappointment when the fourth-seeded Romanian-Bielorussian pair Tecau-Mirnîiwas stopped in its tracks in the second round. In the mixed double event Tecau paired with Bethanie Mattek Sands with whom he won last year’s finals. However, this time they weren’t even able to make it to the second round of the competition. The best performance in the doubles belonged to Monica Niculescu and Camelia Begu, who went as far as the eighth finals.
We have to admit that along the years the Australian Open has not been to the liking of Romanian tennis players. The best shows in Melbourne were put on by Virginia Ruzici and Irina Sparlea; the former got as far as the competition’s quarterfinals in 1980, when she admitted defeat to Hana Mandlikova, from the Czech Republic, who eventually walked away with the trophy.
17 years later Sparlea was edged out also in the quarters by Swiss challenger Martina Hingis, who later clinched the trophy.
In the men’s competitions, Andrei Pavel qualified for the eighth finals twice; in 1999, when he lost to Russian Evgheni Kafelnikov and in 2004, when he admitted defeat to Juan Carlos Ferrero.
But the best Romanian performance in the Australian Open was obtained by Horia Tecau, who together with Bethanie Mattek Sands last year secured the title in the mixed double event.
