The world’s number three tennis
player, Romanian Simona Halep, on Monday qualified for the quarter finals of
the Australian Open after a 6-4, 6-4 win against Elise Mertens of Belgium. The performance
has brought Halep, a Roland Garros and Wimbledon champion, 525,000 AUD and
430 WTA points. The Romanian will be up against Anett Kontaveit of Estonia in
the quarter-finals.
Romanian fencer Ana-Maria Popescu
on Sunday won the women’s individual epee contest in the Doha Grand Prix. The
Romanian secured a 15-9 win against Mara Navarria of Italy in the finals. We
recall that Popescu’s prize closet also includes a World Cup, which she won in
Tallinn in November last year and came in second at the World Cup in Havana on
January 10th. Ana-Maria tops the World Cup ranking and is very close
to qualification for the Tokyo Olympics.
Last weekend saw the fixtures of
the European Cups in women’s handball. In the Champions League on Saturday, SCM
Ramnicu Valcea secured a 31-16 home win against Krim Mercator Ljubljana in
their first match of Group 2. Hungarian side Gyor tops the group’s ranking with
8 points followed by Brest Bretagne of France with 8 points and Buducnost
Podgorica of Montenegro with 4 points. SCM is on the fourth position with 2
points as well as Krim and the Swedish side Savehof.
In a Group One fixture, CSM
Bucharest lost to Hungarian side Ferencvaros 23-33. Metz Handball of France is
ranking first with 8 points, followed by the Danish side Team Esbjerg with 6
points and the Norwegians from Vipers Kristiansand with 5. Russian side Rostov
Don is on the fourth position followed by Ferencvaros and CSM each with 3
points.
Romanian handball side Gloria
Bistrita-Nasaud secured their first win in the EHF Cup. The Romanians
outperformed Danish side Odense Handbold 25-23 in a home game. Odense comes
first in the group’s ranking with 6 points followed by ERD of Hungary with 5,
Gloria with 4 and Polish side MKS Lublin with only one point.
In the competition’s group B,
Magura Cisnadie of Romania lost at home to the Danish from Kobenhavn Handball
33-28 and are still at the group’s bottom with no points.
(translated by bill)