Athlete of the Week on RRI – Tennis player Horia Tecau

With the Rio Olympics now over, everyones eyes are again focusing on the most important ATP and WTA tennis tournaments. Two such competitions ended last week in Cincinnati, US. The mens competition offered 4.3 million dollars up for grabs, while the womens competition totaled 2.5 million dollars in prize money.

Florin Orban, 23.08.2016, 13:28

With the Rio Olympics now over, everyones eyes are again focusing on the most important ATP and WTA tennis tournaments. Two such competitions ended last week in Cincinnati, US. The mens competition offered 4.3 million dollars up for grabs, while the womens competition totaled 2.5 million dollars in prize money.

In the womens singles, Simona Halep reached as far as the semi-finals. In the mens doubles event, the pair made up of Romanian Horia Tecau and the Dutch Jean-Julien Rojer was very close to winning the final. They lost however to Ivan Dodig of Croatia and Marcelo Melo of Brazil, who won 7-6, 6-7, 10-6.

Following this result, Radio Romania International has designated Horia Tecau Athlete of the Week.

Let us note that Tecau also had a remarkable run at the Rio Olympics. Together with his teammate Florin Mergea, he won silver in the doubles event.

Horia Tecau was born on January 19, 1985 in Brasov, central Romania. He has been playing tennis since the age of 7. In 2002 he won the juniors tournament in Wimbledon alongside Florin Mergea. He turned pro in 2003. Since July 2008 he has been ranking among the worlds top 100 players in doubles standings, and as of November 2009 he is among the worlds top 50. He has been climbing constantly the doubles ladder, and is now ranked 2nd, a position he has been holding since November last year, after winning the 2015 ATP World Tour doubles final in London together with Jean-Julien Rojer of the Netherlands. At present he is ranked 9th in ATP doubles standings. Horia Tecau has won 29 of the total of 46 doubles finals he has played.

(Translated by V. Palcu)