Sports Highlights in 2014 (II)

A look at the sports highlights of 2014

România Internațional, 26.12.2014, 12:50

Today we continue with the second part of our highlights in Sports Year 2014. Yesterday we ended our review with the medal Romanian women rowers got at the European Championships in Belgrade.

Romanian tennis player Simona Halep provided the most noteworthy performances for the month of July. Halep made it to the Wimbledon semifinals, but failed to play the finals as she conceded victory to Canadian tennis player Eugenie Bouchard. Then Halep won the WTA tournament in Bucharest and in the finals she defeated Italy’s Roberta Vinci in straight sets, 6-1, 6-3.

Also in July matches were played counting towards Romania’s Cup in football. For the first time ever Astra Giurgiu won the trophy, securing a 6-4 win against Steaua, following the penalty shootouts. Regular time scoreboard showed Steaua were held to a 1-all draw.

At the World Fencing Championships in Kazan, Russia, Romanian walked away with one medal, as Tiberiu Dolniceanu walked away with bronze, having qualified for the individual sabre event. In the finals, Dolniceanu was defeated by Russia’s Nikolay Kovalyov, 15 to 9.

In early August, the Romanian Horia Tecau secured yet anther win in the ATP circuit. Pairing up with the Dutch Jean Julien Rojer, Tecau compelled recognition in the Washington tournament’s double event, since the two secured a 7-5, 6-4 win against Australian-Indian pair made of Sam Groth and Leander Paes.

Also in August, the delegation representing Romania at the World Rowing Championships in Moscow walked away with two medals, won by Liviu Dumitrescu and Victor Mihalachi. The two won the world title in the 1,000-meter double canoe event and the silver medals in the 500-meter events. We should note, however, that no Romanian crew stepped onto the podium at the World Championships. Romania’s best crews, the coxless double scull and the eight plus one, came 4th.

In September, Romania’s national football team played its debut match counting towards the 2016 European Championships preliminaries. In Piraeus, manager Victor Piturca’s footballers secured a 1-nil win against Greece. Also in September Romania’s tennis team assured their position in the Davis Cup’s group one — Europe/Africa after a three-one win against Sweden in Bucharest. A week later Monica Niculescu won the WTA tournament in Guangzhou, China, with 500 thousand dollars in prize money. The Romanian defeated second-seeded French challenger Alize Cornet in the finals, 6-4, 6-0. At the end of the month, Romanian-Dutch pair, made up of Horia Tecau and Julien Rojer won the doubles finals of the tournament in Shenzhen, after a 6-4, 7-6 win against Australians Sam Groth and Chris Guccione.

In October Tecau and Rojer defeated in the finals of the Beijing tournament the pair made up of French Julien Benneteau and Canadian Vasek Pospisil, 6-7, 7-5, 10-5. The tennis tournament in Beijing had two million five hundred dollars up for grabs.

Also in October, Larisa Iordache won two silver medals, in the individual all-round and the floor events of the gymnastics championships in Nanning, China.

Romania’s national football side played two games in group F of Euro 2016 preliminaries. They ended in a one-all draw their game against Hungary and secured a two-nil away win against Finland.

October ended with Simona Halep’s major performance; she made it to the WTA Finals in Singapore, where she eventually lost three-six, nil-six to Serena Williams. We recall that in the red group clash, Simona had defeated Williams six-nil, six-two. At the tournament in Valencia with prizes of roughly one million and a half euros, the Romanian – Dutch pair, Tecau-Rojer won the doubles final against South-African Kevin Anderson and French Jeremy Chardy.

In November, Romania’s national football side made it to the first position in the Euro 2016 Qualifying Group F after a two-nil home win against Northern Ireland.

Another notable performance was obtained by women’s handball squad HCM Baia Mare, which qualified for the Champions League, after ranking third in Group E.

The last major competition in 2014 was the European Women’s Handball Championship hosted by Hungary and Croatia in December. Norway won the title, upon a 28-25 win in the finals against Spain, while Romania came 9th in the standings.

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