Radio România Internațional

Tag: Dubai tournament

  • Simona Halep breaks new record

    Simona Halep breaks new record

    Simona Halep won the Dubai
    tournament on Saturday after a break of 5 years. The 28-year-old player
    prevailed at the end of a drama-packed 2-hour-and-a-half final against the
    young and talented Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan. Simona defeated Rybakina after
    last autumn in Wuhan Halep was forced to withdraw in a direct encounter with
    the Kazakhstani player. It’s very special to win my 20th title here
    at the 20th edition of the Dubai tournament in 2020. I will enjoy
    it, it’s a very beautiful moment, Simona said, adding I feel extraordinary
    for being able to win. It was amazing. Rykabina fought to the very end, she
    didn’t give up any points. It was very challenging mentally, the pressure piled
    up, but I really wanted to win, so I gave it all to the very end. Halep
    praised her opponent, whom many see as Maria Sharapova’s successor in the WTA
    circuit.

    She’s very strong. Her serve
    is powerful, she’s tall and robust. I think she will soon enter the top 10,
    Halep described Rybakina. The former world no. 1, currently world no. 2, has
    won her first title this year. Halep just entered the 318th consecutive
    week in the top 10 players, which makes her the 10th player in the
    world history to do so. The figures may be boring, but they are key to
    understanding one of the greatest athlete in the history of Romanian tennis, if
    not sports as a whole. This is all the more important as Romania is struggling
    with achieving excellence in the field of sports, facing severe underfunding.
    With 20 titles won so far, Simona Halep has matched the performance of Victoria
    Azarenka of Belarus, and is ranked 6th in the standings of players
    who are still active, after Serena and Venus Williams, Kim Clujsters, Maria
    Sharapova and Petra Kvitova. I’ve had many good results in the last 6-7 years.
    I’ve always ranked in the top 5 or top 10, which isn’t easy. I’m proud of my
    achievements, and these tournaments are a confidence boost for me, confirming
    I’m still able to play at top level, Halep went on to say.

    Simona Halep won
    her first WTA tournaments 7 years ago, in Nurnberg, ‘s-Hertogenbosch, Budapest,
    New Haven, Moscow and Sofia. At the same time she won the Doha, Bucharest,
    Shenzhen, Dubai, Indian Wells, Madrid and Montreal tournaments. She won two
    Grand Slam tournaments, in Roland Garros in 2018 and in Wimbledon last year,
    after a historic final against tennis legend Serena Williams. The Romanian also
    played an Australian Open final in 2018. So far Halep lost 17 finals, and it
    would be naïve to dwell on this statistic. On the contrary, it goes to say that
    Halep has been a constant achiever in tennis. Last but not least, Halep has had
    major contributions to Romania’s wins in the Fed Cup, and will represent
    Romania at the Tokyo Summer Olympics this year.


    (Translated by V. Palcu)

  • March 1, 2018 UPDATE

    March 1, 2018 UPDATE

    Visit — The situation of the Romanian justice system was the central topic of discussions the First Vice President of the European Commission Frans Timmermans held on Thursday in Bucharest with the Romanian officials: President Klaus Iohannis, PM Viorica Dancila, the speakers of Parliament’s two chambers, Calin Popescu Tariceanu and Liviu Dragnea, the leaders of the ruling coalition, as well as with the members of the parliamentary committee in charge of modifying the justice laws. Mr. Timmermans also had meetings with representatives of the justice system. Fresh from these talks the European official had a press conference in which he said that contact with the Romanian authorities would be intensified on the issue of the judiciary. He praised the progress Romania reported in this field after EU accession in 2007. Mr. Timmermans also underlined that the EC’s ambition was to be able to stop the Mechanism for Cooperation and Verification for Romania by 2019, given that Romania will take over the presidency of the EU Council in the first half of 2019.



    Weather — Code yellow and code orange alerts for cold weather have been issued for the whole of Romania until Friday evening. The skies will be overcast and light snowfalls are expected in all of the country’s regions. Minimum temperatures will drop to minus 24 degrees C while the highs will not exceed plus 2 degrees C. Schools remained closed for the entire week in the capital Bucharest and several counties in the southeast. Several national and county roads in the south and east of the territory are still closed. Because of the strong winds, the Black Sea ports remained closed. Trains have reported delays, many have been cancelled and airports are operating in winter conditions. According to the authorities, problems related to electric power and natural gas supply have been dealt with.



    Brexit — The EU chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, on Thursday said that London’s stand regarding the future relations with the community bloc leaves room for a free trade agreement between the two sides. According to Barnier, the only possible model remains that of a free trade agreement, as recently happened with Canada, Japan and South Korea. He added that Great Britain would remain a member of the European Customs Union but it would have to accept more responsibilities, among which border controls with the EU. Barnier said that the success of Brexit negotiations entailed accelerated talks, only 13 months ahead of the official date for Brexit.



    Tennis — The pair made up of Romanian Horia Tecău and Dutch Jean Julien Rojer on Thursday qualified to the semifinals of the Dubai tournament with prizes up for grabs worth more than 2.6 million dollars. They defeated 6-4, 6-4 the pair Marcin Matkowski (Poland)/ Uisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi (Pakistan). For a place in the final, Tecău and Rojer, 2nd seeded and title holders, will be up against the pair Ivan Dodig (Croatia) / Rajeev Ram (the US) on Friday. (news translated and updated by Lacramioara Simion)