Table tennis player Daniela Dodean Monteiro, at the end of a fruitful career
The best Romanian athlete of the city of Arad in the past 25 years has withdrawn from competitions
Florin Orban, 18.06.2025, 13:45
Romania has always produced some of the best female tennis players in the world. International champions like Angelica Rozeanu or Maria Alexandru, are some of the athletes who compelled international recognition back in the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s of the past century. An outstanding tradition that has been kept and athletes from Romania have continued to put up excellent shows in the new millennium as well; they obtained good results in top continental competitions while in the world contests they proved to their Asian opponents they are a force to be reckoned with.
Among the laureates of the European championships of the past years was also Daniela Dodean, an athlete who at the end of last week withdrew from competitions during a ceremony in her native city of Arad, in western Romania. Born in 1988, she took up table tennis at the age of five and played in top international competitions for 32 years.
She became Romania’s multiple national champion in all age categories and during her career she played in 7 finals of European Championships in the team contest where she reaped two gold medals and five silver. In the women’s doubles jointly with Elizabeta Samara, she got five European medals, two gold, one silver and two bronze. Her prize closet also includes the European title in the mixed doubles together with her husband, the Portuguese player, Joao Monteiro.
The withdrawal ceremony included a special event, a match pitching the Dodean family against an all-star selection. The event was attended by former and present top players such as the multiple European champion Elizabeta Samara, Japanese player Aya Umemura, the world’s former number 11, and the former Romanian champion Adrian Crişan. The local press has given a wide coverage to the event writing that Daniela Dodean has been the best athlete of the city of Arad in the past quarter of century.
We must also mention that after withdrawal, Daniela Dodean Monteiro has chosen to remain in the table tennis to train new talents at the academy, which bears her name.
(bill)
