Radio România Internațional

Tag: Markéta Vondroušová

  • Sports Weekend

    Sports Weekend

    Romanian athlete Alin Alexuc-Ciurariu on Thursday qualified for the upcoming Olympics in Paris, after a couple of wins in the pre-Olympic wrestling tournament in Istanbul. The Romanian competed in the Greek-Roman style, the 130 kilogram category. A European champion in 2020, Alexuc also represented Romania at the London Olympics in 2012, in Rio, in 2016 and Tokyo in 2020. Romania presently boasts 83 athletes qualified for the Olympic Games in 12 disciplines.

    Romanian tennis players Sorana Cîrstea and Jaqueline Cristian on Thursday qualified for the third round of the WTA 1.000 tournament in Rome, a competition with 4,800,000 Euros in prize money.

    Sorana clinched a two-set win 7-5, 6-0 against Brenda Fruhvirtova of the Czech Republic and will be playing sixth seeded Marketa Vondrousova in the third round. Jaqueline Cristian who made it to the main draw as ”lucky loser”, obtained a 5-7, 6-2, 6-2 win against Elina Avanesyan of Russia in a match that lasted almost three hours. In the third round the Romanian will be up against the world’s number three, Coco Gauff, of the United States.

    On Sunday in Brno, the Romanian national side will be playing the Czech selection in the second round of the playoffs for the World Handball Championships next year. The Romanians won the first match at home 31-30. The World handball Championships will be hosted by Croatia, Denmark and Norway over January 14th and February 2nd.

    Football lovers in Romania this weekend are going to find out the sides that will demote to the second football league. Two elevens, Dinamo and FCU Craiova, are on the last positions in the ranking to be demoted to the second league. Dinamo will be playing in a home game UTA Arad and Craiova will be up against FC Hermannstadt. Poli Iași also on their own turf will be playing Petrolul Ploiești while FC Voluntari also in a home match takes on Universitatea Cluj. Oțelul Galați, also at home, takes on FC Botoșani.

    Sepsi Sfântu Gheorghe plays Rapid București, while the champions FCSB, will be meeting CFR Cluj in Bucharest on Saturday. CFR Cluj will fight for the second position in the ranking. Another side fighting for this position, which ensures qualification for the preliminaries of the Conference League, is Universitatea Craiova, which is taking on Farul Constanta in an away game. CFR and Craiova have the same number of points.

    In the end we remind you that you can revisit this report on the Internet at rri.ro as well as on Radio Romania International’s Facebook profile.

    (bill)

  • Athlete of the Week

    Athlete of the Week

    Tennis tournaments are staged in the month of February in the Gulf area as this is the only place in the northern hemisphere, which offers the best conditions for this sport, this time of the year.

    Last week, for instance, the women’s WTA 1000 tournament was staged in Dubai, a competition with three million and two hundred thousand dollars in prize money. The trophy was won by Italian Jasmine Paolini, who outperformed Russian Anna Kalinskaya in the finals. Romanian Sorana Cîrstea had made it to the semifinals, where she lost to Paolini, who had a really extraordinary week. Cîrstea obtained a check of 158,944 dollars, 390 WTA points, and Radio Romania International has designated her Athlete of the Week.

    In the first round of the Dubai Tennis Championships, Sorana stood up against US challenger Sofia Kenin, whom she beat in a two setter, 6-3, 7-6. Next she took on 13th-seeded Veronika Kudermetova of Russia, whom she outperformed 6-1, 6-4. She had a difficult eighth finals match against Donna Vekic of Croatia who had come after a win against second-seeded Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus.

    Cîrstea won the match in three sets 3-6, 6-3, 7-5. Then followed another dificult game in the quarters against Marketa Vondrousova of the Czech Republic. The Romanian obtained a three-set win, 2-6, 7-6, 6-2, after a fantastic comeback in the second set. In the semifinals, however, fatigue took its toll on Sorana who eventually lost to Paolini 6-2, 7-6.

    Sorana Cîrstea was born in Târgovişte (southern Romania), on April 7th 1990. She turned professional in 2006, a year which she ended on the 348th place in the world ranking. She has so far won two WTA tournaments; the first in Tashkent in 2008 and the second 13 years later in Istanbul. In August 2013 she obtained the best position in her entire career, the 21st position. She went through a more difficult period fraught with medical issues, but she recovered and almost regained the shape that made her famous. She is presently 22nd in the world ranking.

    (bill)