RRI Sports Club
Tennis
Florin Orban, 05.08.2020, 13:45
The official tennis season has been resumed. The first tournament currently played in Palermo, Italy is the WTA with prizes up for grabs worth 163 thousand Euros. The tournament’s top seed was initially the Romanian Simona Halep, 2nd ranked in the WTA classification. But she gave up participating in the tournament following quarantine measures imposed by Italy to persons who had recently been in Romania and Bulgaria. Nevertheless, the organizers have obtained derogation from the quarantine rules for the tennis payers that signed up for the tournament, so the main table for the singles included three tennis players from Romania. Unfortunately all three were eliminated in the first round. On Monday Sorana Carstea was defeated by Italian Sara Errani 7-5, 1-6, 6-4 and Laura Siegemund of Germany defeated Irina Begu 6-3, 6-4. On Tuesday Patricia Tig lost to Anett Kontaveit of Estonia, 6-3, 6-3.
Simona Halep has confirmed participation in the WTA tournament to be held in Prague, on clay. The Canadian player Eugenie Bouchard, a 2014 finalist in Wimbledon, is also expected in Prague, as she has received a wildcard.
At the same time, Lexington, in the American state of Kentucky, is hosting another important tournament on clay which is being attended mainly by American players, among whom Serena Williams. This tournament is kind of a warm-up for the US Open scheduled to start on August 31 and which will be played also on clay.
Meanwhile, the Madrid tennis tournament scheduled for September has been canceled, the organizers announced on Tuesday, invoking the difficult circumstances caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Last week, the government of the Madrid region had recommended the cancellation of the tournament because of the spread of the new coronavirus. Initially scheduled for May, the Madrid tournament was postponed for the period September 12-20, the timetable having been modified due to the pandemic. The reemergence of new coronavirus hotbeds in Spain made the organizers give up the tournament. (L. Simion)
