Sports Roundup

A roundup of the main sporting events

Florin Orban, 13.01.2025, 13:45

Romanian tennis player Jaqueline Cristian on Monday advanced to the second round of the Australian Open after ousting Petra Martic of Croatia 6-2, 4-6, 7-6 in the opening round, after winning 10-7 the supertiebreak. Also on Monday, Sorana Cîrstea lost to Ukraine’s Elena Svitolina, the competition’s 28^th seed, 6-4, 6-4. On Sunday, Anca Todoni lost 7-6, 6-1 to Qinwen Zheng of China (5^th seed). On Tuesday, Gabriela Ruse will play Irina Begu.

The Romanian women’s handball team Gloria Bistrița-Năsăud has grabbed its third win in the current edition of Champions League. Florentin Pera’s trainees won 31-28 against Storhamar of Norway at home on Saturday, in a match counting towards Group A. Danila So Delgado Pinto of Spain was Gloria’s top scorer with 7 goals, followed by Tamires de Araujo of Brazil and Sonia Serafinceanu, each with 6 goals. Also in Group A, on Sunday, CSM Bucharest lost 24-27 the match played away from home against group leader Metz of France. CSM ranks 5th in the group tables, followed by Gloria in 6^th place. Next round, on Saturday, CSM will play Krim Ljubljana of Slovenia at home, while Gloria will travel to Croatia to play Podravka Koprivnica.

In Group B, Rapid Bucharest lost away from home 33-21 to Brest Bretagne of France. The Romanian vice-champions are ranked 8^th in the group standings. This week Rapid will play Odense of Denmark. The top two teams in each group will advance to the quarterfinals. Teams in positions 3-6 will play playoff matches to reach the quarterfinals, while teams in 7^th and 8^th place will leave the competition.

In the EHF European League, in the opening group phase round, Dunărea Brăila trounced Elche of Spain 33-15 at home, in Group A. Another Romanian club, SCM Râmnicu Vâlcea, drew 31-31 against Borussia Dortmund away from home, in Group B. This Saturday, Dunărea is playing Larvik of Norway away from home, while SCM is taking on Ikast of Denmark at home.

After seven rounds in the Dakar Rally, Emanuel Gyenes ranks 23 in the general standings, four hours behind leader Daniel Sanders of Australia. Competing on a KTM motorcycle, Gyenes ranks 10th in the Rally 2 standings and is the leader of the Original by Motul standings, followed by Benjamin Melot of France, some 10 minutes behind. (VP)