Sports weekend

Simona Halep this past Thursday has advanced to the third round at Wimbledon. 16-th seeded Halep grabbed a hard-fought 7-5, 6-4 win against WTA 190th-placed, 36-year-old Belgium challenger Kirsten Flipkens.A Wimbledon winner three years ago, in the third round Halep will be joining her fellow Romanian participant, Irina Begu, who on Wednesday secured her ticket to the third round, defeating Italy's Elisabetta Cocciaretto, 6-4, 6-4. In the ladies' doubles event, pairing up with Anhelina Kalynina, Begu was eliminated from the very first round. OnThursday, the Romanian - Ukrainian pair was defeated by the 11th-seeded pair made of Alicja Rosolska of Poland and New-Zealand's Erin Routliffe, 6-4, 6-4.

Romania's national men's basketball team has secured its presence in the second prequalifies round as part of the FIBA EuroBasket 2025 competition. In Timisoara on Thursday, the Romanians defeated Luxembourg, 78-67. Of the lineup head-coached by Dragan Petricevic, the best basketball player was Rolland Torok, with 21 points, 3 recoveries and 6 assists. The win in Timisoara secured the top-of-the-table position for Romania in group B. Luxembourg and Albania fight for the 2nd-place in the group. In its last fixture scheduled on July 3rd, Romania will face Albania in Durres. The winners of the three groups and the best 2nd-placed team advance to the second round as part of the FIBA EuroBasket 2025 pre-qualifiers.

In news from women's handball, at the World Youth Championship in Slovenia, the Romanian team made of under-20 handballers won yet another classification match. On Thursday, Romania succeeded a heart-throbbing win against Slovakia, 31-30. The fixture counted towards a lower-echelon position according to the world rankings.

Of the line-up head-coached by Horațiu Pașca, the most efficient scorers were Mălina Ioana Bichir, with 7 goals, Alexandra Gabriela Dumitraşcu, with 6, and Mihaela Andreea Mihai, with 5 goals. On Friday, in a direct confrontation for the 17th and the 18th positions, Romania faces Poland.

Rapid Bucharest football team is on a training stage in Austria. In the coming days, Rapid takes on Polish opponents KS Krakow, LASK Linz of Austria and Slavia Prague of the Czech Republic. In their first game as part of the ongoing training stage, Rapid Bucharest sustained a 2-3 defeat by Austrian second-league team Spusu Sankt Pölten.

(EN)