Sports Roundup

The Gloria Bistrita women's handball team took a big step towards the quarterfinals of the Champions League.

Florin Orban, 23.03.2026, 13:45

The Romanian tennis player Jaqueline Cristian has qualified for the first time for the round of 16 of a WTA 1000 tournament. In Miami, where the prize money is 9,400,000 dollars, she defeated seed number 11, Ekaterina Alexandrova, in the third round, 6-3, 4-6, 7-6. In the first set, the Russian player played way below her level of play, complaining of back pain, and Cristian prevailed. Alexandrova came back into the fight, won the second set, and in the decisive one she led 4-2. However, the Romanian recovered and won in the tiebreak.

Next up, women’s handball. Gloria Bistriţa took a big step towards the quarterfinals of the Champions League. In the first leg of the quarterfinal tie, the Transylvanian team defeated the Danish team Ikast 35-34 on Sunday away from home. The Scandinavians led the scoreboard for most of the game, sometimes even by 5 goals. However, Gloria dominated the end of the game and won. The most efficient players of the Romanian team were the Spanish Danila So Delgado, with 11 goals, and Sonia Serafinceanu, with 8. The return match is scheduled for Saturday, in Bistriţa. CSM Bucharest, the champion of Romania, qualified directly for the quarterfinals of the Champions League.

In the EHF European League, the only Romanian team left in the competition, Rapid Bucharest, also played in Denmark, in the first leg of the quarter-finals. Rapid met Viborg, former Champions League winners. The Danes won decisively, 35 to 26, and have their first chance to advance.

We are now moving on to basketball. In the Adriatic League, the men’s team U-BT Cluj-Napoca won on Sunday in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sarajevo, against the Bosna BH Telecom team, score 93 to 90. The Romanian-American international player Daron Russell, with 25 points and 6 assists, and the Australian Mitchell Creek, with 23 points and 6 rebounds, were the best players of the Romanian champion. In the same competition, on Saturday, U-BT will play in Slovenia, against Olimpija Ljubljana.

Over the weekend, matches were held for the play-off / play-out phase of the Romanian Football Super League championship, second stage. In the play-off, all games ended with a score of 1 to 0. On Thursday, Universitatea Craiova defeated Dinamo in Bucharest. On Friday, CFR defeated Rapid Bucharest in Cluj. Finally, on Saturday, in Mioveni, Universitatea Cluj won the game against FC Argeş. The Cluj team climbed to first place, tying on points with Craiova.

In the play-out, on Friday, FCSB defeated UTA 1-0 in Bucharest. On Saturday, in Clinceni, Metaloglobus won the game with Petrolul Ploieşti at the same score, and in Miercurea Ciuc, Csikszereda tied 1-1 with Farul Constanţa. On Sunday, in Sibiu, Hermannstadt won 3-0 in the confrontation with FC Botoşani. The last game of the stage, on Monday: Unirea Slobozia with Oţelul Galaţi. (LS)