Category: Sport

Romanian fencer Tiberiu Dolniceanu won the Saber World Cup in Moscow, where he outperformed Kim Junghyun of South Korea in the finals, score 15-10. The Romanian fencer had a good run in the preliminary rounds, where he brushed aside Tomohiro Shimamura of Japan 15-7 in the first round, and Gabriele Foschini of Italy 15-7 in the second round. In the eighth finals, Dolniceanu knocked out Nicolas Rousset of France, 15-10. In the quarterfinals, the Romanian fencer went up against Luigi Miracco of Italy, whom he defeated 15-12. The semifinals pitted Dolniceanu against Matyas Szabo of Germany, a most difficult opponent. Dolniceanu however grabbed a narrow 15-14 win. That was the second title in the last four rounds of the World Cup in 2014 for Dolniceanu, who is as of now the leader of the World Cup tables.

The other Romanian fencers competing in Moscow, Ciprian Galatanu, Dragos Sarbu and Alin Badea were knocked out as early as the second preliminary round. In the team competition, Romania ranked only 8th after defeating the UK in the first round 45-34, but losing to Italy in the second round 45-40.

Aged 25, Dolniceanu was born in Iasi, north-eastern Romania. At the 2013 World Fencing Championships he won bronze in the singles competition and silver with Romania’s team. His record sheet also includes a gold medal at the 2009 World Championships in Turkey and a bronze medal at the 2010 World Championships in France. The best performance of his career so far is the Olympic silver medal in the team competition at the 2012 London Olympics.

Romanian tennis player Irina Begu last week won the ITF tournament in Campinas, Brazil, with 25,000 dollars prize money up for grabs. In the finals, Begu snatched a straight-sets win against Russian Alexandra Panova, 6-2,6-4. 23-year old Begu is a 127-seed in the women’s rankings, while Panova is seeded 25, and 149 in the WTA rankings. This week Begu is competing in the Sao Paolo tournament, where she is seeded first, as another Romanian, Alexandra Dulgheru, withdrew from competition. In the women’s doubles, Irina Begu and Alexandra Panova, the one she had defeated in Campinas, rank as the main favorites and have secured their ticket to the Sao Paolo tournament’s quarterfinals, with no game for them to be played, since Hilda Melander and Rebecca Peterson from Sweden withdrew from competition.

Irina Begu was born in Bucharest on August 26, 1990. The first notable performance of her career occurred in 2006, when Begu won the European title in the women’s under-16 category. Then the Romanian climbed up to the upper echelon of the world rankings, year after year, while in 2011 she held the best position of her career in the women’s singles, as she was a WTA 38-seed.

Then the time came for the Romanian to compel recognition in the women’s doubles, since she reached as far as the finals in a string of WTA tournaments. Jointly with Monica Niculescu, Begu won the tournament in Hobart, Australia, in 2012, while in 2013 she won the ‘s-Hertogenbosch tournament in the Netherlands, pairing up with Anabel Medina Garrigues from Spain. Irina Begu is a WTA 127-seed in the singles at the moment, skipping 18 positions. Contributing to her good run was the fact that, apart from her performance in the Rio de Janeiro tournament doubles, Begu succeeded in reaching as far as the quarterfinals in the women’s singles. At present, Irina is a WTA 66-seed in the doubles competition.

Ski jumping This weekend, the central Romanian town of Rasnov is playing host to a new event as part of the FIS Ski Jumping World Cup. Competing are 46 athletes from 13 countries: Japan, Germany, Russia, Slovenia, Norway, Austria, France, Italy, the US, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, Finland and Romania. The lineup also includes Carina Vogt of Germany, the new Olympic champion in Sochi; Sara Takanashi of Japan, who currently has the highest number of wins in the World Cup; as well as Daniela Iraschko-Stolz of Austria, the first woman to fly over 200 meters. Romania will be represented by Daniela Haralabie. Aged 16, she is the first Romanian athlete ever to qualify to a World Cup ski jumping event.

Football This weekend sees a new leg in the Romanian First League championship. Two matches are scheduled on Friday: Viitorul Constanta will play CFR Cluj, while Universitatea Cluj will take on Astra Giurgiu at home.

On Saturday, Politehnica Timisoara will go up against Sageata Navodari. The highlight match of the round will feature Bucharest rivals Steaua and Dinamo. In 129 encounters, Dinamo has won 45 games, as compared to 39 wins for Steaua. The remaining 45 games ended in a draw. Steaua on the other hand has a better goal-average, with 176 goals scored and 172 conceded. Of the 64 matches played on home turf, Steaua won 23, drew in 22 and lost 19. The first ever match pitting the two teams was played on November 21, 1948, when Dinamo defeated CSCA, as Steaua was known at the time, final score 1-nil. Steaua Bucharest has prevailed in the last six confrontations with Dinamo, of which 5 in the domestic competition and one in the Romanian Cup finals of 2011. Romanian tennis player Simona Halep, ranked 7th in WTA standings, has been invited to officially kick-off the match played on Ghencea Stadium in Bucharest.

On Sunday, FC Botosani will play FC Brasov away from home, Otelul Galati will travel to Ploiesti to meet the local side Petrolul, and Pandurii Targu Jiu will play visitors from Ceahlaul Piatra Neamt. Another two matches are scheduled on Monday: Corona Brasov will face Concordia Chiajna and FC Vaslui will play CS Gaz Metan Medias. Ahead of the 21st round, Steaua Bucharest tops the league tables with 48 points, followed by Astra Giurgiu with 45 points and Petrolul Ploiesti with 41 points.

The Olympic flame was put out Sunday night in the Russian resort of Sochi, when the 22nd edition of the Winter Olympic Games officially closed. International media worldwide acknowledged that these have been the most expensive Olympic games ever, but also the most spectacular winter Olympic games of all time.

Worth mentioning at this point is the fact that a previously implausible international security cooperation ensured the complete safety of the Olympic Games in Sochi, in spite of the rumors of terrorist threats coming from neighboring Caucasus.

Russia topped the medal table in the nations’ competition. After 16 days of competition and 98 finals, the delegation of the host country walked away with 13 gold, 11 silver and 9 bronze medals. Norway was on the runner-up position, with 11 gold, 5 silver and 5 bronze medals. Canada came in third, with 10 gold, 10 silver and 5 bronze medals. The Canadians however won one of the most coveted titles, the ice hockey Olympic medal.

Romania sent to Russia a delegation made of 24 athletes, who took part in 8 sports disciplines: alpine skiing, cross-country skiing, biathlon, ski jumping, figure skating, bobsleigh, luge and skeleton.

The Romanian delegation’s best performance was reported in the bobsleigh event. The women’s and the two-man bobsleigh crews came in 17th in the final rankings. The position is hardly spectacular, but it accurately reflects where the Romanian winter sports actually stand at the moment.

The 2018 edition of the Winter Olympic Games will be hosted by the South-Korean city for Pyeong Chang.

The tennis pair made up of Romanian Irina Begu and Maria Irigoyen of Argentina won last week’s doubles event at the WTA tournament in Rio de Janeiro, totaling 250,000 dollars in prize money. In the finals, Begu and Irigoyen outperformed the pair made up of Johanna Larsson of Sweden and Chanelle Scheepers of South Africa.

For her remarkable achievement, we have designated Irina Begu Athlete of the Week on RRI.

Irina Begu was born in Bucharest on August 25, 1990. The first notable achievement in her career came early on, in 2006, when she won the European title in the under-16 competition. In the years that followed she gradually improved her WTA ranking. 2011 was a good year for her, as she reached the all-time best ranking of her career, 38th in WTA standings.

After 2011 Irina Begu focused more on doubles competitions. She made it to several WTA tournaments and won the 2012 tournament in Hobart alongside Romanian Monica Niculescu, as well as the 2013 tournament in ‘s-Hertogenbosch where she teamed up with Anabel Medina Garrigues of Spain. In 2012 she lost the finals in Fes alongside Romanian Alexandra Cadantu and in Luxembourg with her teammate Monica Niculescu.

Following her win in Rio, Irina Begu has skipped 22 positions in WTA singles standings and is now ranked 123rd. This improvement is owed not only to her win in the doubles event, but also to the fact that she qualified for the quarterfinals in the singles event. Irina Begu is currently seeded 66th in WTA doubles standings.

This year, the first leg took place in Bucharest, while the second one was hosted by the eastern Romanian town of Bacau. The event’s finals were held in Romania’s capital city this past weekend.

The winners of the Crystal Cup, a trophy rewarding the best performances, were, in the men’s competition, triple jump athlete Marian Oprea, while in the women’s competition the winner was long-jump athlete Alina Rotaru. On the first day of the finals, this past Saturday, Oprea succeeded a jump of 17 meters and 30 centimeters, that is 30 centimeters more than the triple jump standard, required for qualification to the World Indoor Championships scheduled to be held in the Polish city of Sopot in March. On Sunday, Alina Rotaru once again broke her personal record, taking it to 6 meters and 68 centimeters, that is 2 centimeters below the required World Championship standards.

Shot-put athlete Anca Heltne took part in her first official competition this year, and she turned out to be in very good shape. At 18 meters and 88 centimeters, Anca’ s throw stood at one meter more than the World Championships’ standards, set at 17 meters and 80 centimeters.

High – jump athlete Mihai Donisan managed another notable performance at Romania’s national indoor championships. Donisan walked away with the national indoor title with a jump of 2 meters and 32 centimeters, that is 2 centimeters more than the required standard for the World Championships.

Given all these results, the Romanian Athletics Federation has managed to make up the delegation that will be taking part in the Balkan Indoor Athletics Championships, scheduled in Istanbul this coming Saturday. Athletes were also selected taking into account their training schedule, ahead of the World Championships in March. Marian Oprea and Mihai Donisan, for instance, were not included in the Romanian delegation for the Balkan Championships. Alina Rotaru, however, will prove her skills in Istanbul, where she will be using her last chance to meet the required World Championships long-jump standards.

This year, the first leg took place in Bucharest, while the second one was hosted by the eastern Romanian town of Bacau. The event’s finals were held in Romania’s capital city this past weekend.

The winners of the Crystal Cup, a trophy rewarding the best performances, were, in the men’s competition, triple jump athlete Marian Oprea, while in the women’s competition the winner was long-jump athlete Alina Rotaru. On the first day of the finals, this past Saturday, Oprea succeeded a jump of 17 meters and 30 centimeters, that is 30 centimeters more than the triple jump standard, required for qualification to the World Indoor Championships scheduled to be held in the Polish city of Sopot in March. On Sunday, Alina Rotaru once again broke her personal record, taking it to 6 meters and 68 centimeters, that is 2 centimeters below the required World Championship standards.

Shot-put athlete Anca Heltne took part in her first official competition this year, and she turned out to be in very good shape. At 18 meters and 88 centimeters, Anca’ s throw stood at one meter more than the World Championships’ standards, set at 17 meters and 80 centimeters.

High – jump athlete Mihai Donisan managed another notable performance at Romania’s national indoor championships. Donisan walked away with the national indoor title with a jump of 2 meters and 32 centimeters, that is 2 centimeters more than the required standard for the World Championships.

Given all these results, the Romanian Athletics Federation has managed to make up the delegation that will be taking part in the Balkan Indoor Athletics Championships, scheduled in Istanbul this coming Saturday. Athletes were also selected taking into account their training schedule, ahead of the World Championships in March. Marian Oprea and Mihai Donisan, for instance, were not included in the Romanian delegation for the Balkan Championships. Alina Rotaru, however, will prove her skills in Istanbul, where she will be using her last chance to meet the required World Championships long-jump standards.

The pair made up of the Romanian Florin Mergea and Oliver Marach from Austria won the men’s doubles of the ATP tournament held in the Chilean city of Vina del Mar last week. In the finals, Mergea and Marach snatched a 6-3, 6-4 win against Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah, the favorites number two of the tournament.

Mergea and Marach, who played their first ever finals together, were rewarded with 23,500 dollars and 250 ATP points. Before the Vina del Mar tournament, the Romanian had only one ATP men’s doubles title on his record sheet which he won in Vienna in 2013, jointly with the Czech Lukas Rosol. Marach’s record, however, was significantly better, including no less than 12 wins, in the company of various fellow tennis players.

For his feat in the Vina Del Mar tournament, Radio Romania International has designated Florin Mergea the Athlete of the Week.

Mergea and Marach’s most dramatic confrontation in their Chilean run was their eighth finals match, when the two snatched a 7-5, 5-7, 11-9 win in the tiebreak which proved crucial against the main favorites, the Columbians Santiago Giraldo and Alejandro Gonzalez. In the semifinals, they beat the main favorites, the Spaniards Marcel Granollers and Marc Lopez, winners of the 2012 edition of the Champions’ Tournament. After that hard-fought win, it came just as natural for the two to win the finals.

Florin Mergea was born in the South-Western city of Craiova on January 26th, 1985, into a family of medical doctors. As a junior tennis player, he paired up with Horia Tecau, the two jointly winning a string of top-flight tournaments. At present, Mergea is a 48-seed in the world doubles standings.

It’s been a tremendous early 2014 for Romanian fencing. Ana Maria Branza, a former Olympic epee vice-champion and European champion, has managed a new remarkable performance. She won the “Sakovics Jozsef” Grand Prix tournament held in Budapest, a competition counting towards the World Cup.

According to Agerpres news agency, the Romanian fencer had a constant evolution throughout the competition. In the quarterfinals Branza edged out Marta Ferrari of Italy, 15-11. In the semi-finals, Branza went up against Liubov Shutova of Russia. The match was tough, but Branza pulled a narrow 11-10 win. In the final round, Branza had a shining performance, defeating Irina Embrich of Estonia 15-7.

Following her outstanding achievement, we have designated Ana-Maria Branza Athlete of the Week on RRI.

Ana-Maria Branza was born on November 26, 1984. In 2001 Ana-Maria obtained her first notable performance in international competitions, as she became world cadet champion in Poland. In 2002 she became world junior champion in Turkey. Also in 2002 she ranked 3rd at the world seniors’ championships in Lisbon.

At the 2004 Athens Olympics she ranked 16th. She made up for her poor performance four years later at the Beijing Olympics, where she walked away with silver. In 2010 and 2011 she was part of the Romanian women’s epee team that won the world title. In 2013, at the European Championships in Croatia, Branza won gold in the singles competition and silver with Romania’s national team.

This year Ana-Maria Branza will also compete in the European Championships to be held in Strasbourg, France, as well as in the World Championships in Kazan, Russia.

The Australian Open tennis tournament is the headline-hitting competition these days. So far everyone has been upbeat about Romania’s participation in the event. Unfortunately, however, on Wednesday the last Romanian player in the seniors women’s singles was taken out of the competition. In the quarterfinals Simona Halep was defeated by Slovakian tennis player Dominika Cibulkova in straight sets, 6-3,6-nil. For her otherwise excellent run in Melbourne, Simona received 270,000 Australian dollars and 430 WTA points. In 2013 Halep won six WTA tournaments and was designated the tennis player with the most spectacular upward trend in women’s professional circuit in 2013. Simona is also the first Romanian tennis player to have reached as far as the Australian Open’s quarterfinals since 1997, when Irina Sparlea was the last Romanian tennis player to have succeeded such a performance.

In this year’s competition, Romania has got only one representative left. In the mixed doubles, the pair made up of Horia Tecau and the Indian Sonia Mirza, the competition’s number 6 seed, have reached as far as the quarterfinals. The two will be fighting their way up to the semifinals, taking on the pair made of the German Julia Goerges and Aisam Ul-Haq Qureshi from Pakistan.

Horia Tecau has for quite some time been one of the favorites of the Grand Slam tournaments’ doubles events. In 2013, Tecau won the mixed doubles finals in Melbourne, pairing up with American tennis player Bethanie Mattek-Sands. In 2010 and 2011 Tecau, playing with Robert Lindstedt from Sweden, lost the men’s doubles finals in Wimbledon.

The World Fencing Cup has been held in Qatar, Doha. Romania’s women’s epee team won the competition, which actually the firat stage in 2014, following a hard-fought 19 to 18 victory in the finals against China.

Romania’s national team, made of Ana Maria Branza, Simona Pop, Maria Udrea and Raluca Sbarcia, whose manager was Octavian Zidaru defeated Poland in the eighth finals, 45-37, while in the quarter finals Romania snatched a 45-44 win against Estonia. In the semifinals, the Romanians won the match against the USA, 26-25, while in the finals the Romanians outclassed China, 19 to 18. The last three wins were snatched in the extra time’s golden minute”.

This time as well, Ana Maria Branza was the leader of the team. In the individual event, the Romanian fencer’s trail was blocked in the epee’s quarter finals. The defending European champion Ana Maria Branza in the first round defeated the American Diana Barbayeva, 15-5, then she outperformed Yiwen Sun from China, 4-3. In the competition’s eighth finals, Ana Maria Branza defeated the Russian Violetta Kolobova, 9-8.

In the quarterfinals, however, the Romanain fencer had to bow out, as she sustained a defeat by Julia Revesz from Hungary, by the narrowest of margins, 7-8. In the finals, Ana Maria came on the 5th position. Simona Pop was defeated in the ver first round by Kolobova, 15-7, while Maria Udrea and Raluca Sbarcia failed to get themselves in the competition’ s main draw. The Swiss Tiffany Geroudet managed a 15 to 10 win in the match against Julia Beljajeva.

For her performance, Radio Romania International designated Ana Maria Branza the Athlete of the Week.The top-flight Romanian fencer was born on November 26, 1984. In 2001 she became a world cadets champion in Poland, while in 2002 she became a world juniors champion in Turkey. Also in 2002 Ana Maria Branza was ranked 3rd in the world seniors championships in Lisbon. In the Athens Olympics she was ranked 16th, while in Beijing Ana Maria Branza walked away with silver. In 2010 and 2011 the Romanian fencer won the world epee title with Romania’ s national team.

The tennis season is already in full swing, with several WTA tournaments already underway in Australia and New Zealand. Earlier this month the Australian Open kicked off in Melbourne.

Last Saturday, Romanian tennis player Monica Niculescu paired up with Klara Zakopalova of the Czech Republic to win the doubles finals of the WTA tennis tournament in Hobart, totaling 250,000 dollars in prize money. The two outperformed the pair seeded second in the tournament, Lisa Raymond of the United States and Shuai Zhang of China, final score 6-2, 6-7, 10-8.

For her remarkable achievement, we have designated Monica Niculescu Athlete of the Week on RRI. Let us further note that Niculescu and Zakopalova have won their second consecutive title in the WTA season this year, after only a week ago they won the Shenzhen doubles competition in China. This is Niculescu’s fourth consecutive WTA doubles title. In 2012, also in Hobart, Niculescu won the final alongside another Romanian, Irina Begu, while in 2009 she won the doubles event with Alisa Kleibanova of Russia.

Monica Niculescu was born on September 25, 1987 in Slatina, Southern Romania. She moved to Bucharest at the age of four and took up tennis at five. She turned pro in 2002. The highest WTA ranking of her career was 28 in February 2012. At present she ranks 64th in the singles standings and 51st in the doubles standings.

Niculescu is currently playing in the Australian Open’s singles competition. In the first round she

In 2013, Steaua Bucharest has been beyond a reasonable doubt the best-performing football team. It managed to get all the way to the Europa League round of 16, after battling powerful sides such as Chelsea London. At home it had a great season, winning the Romanian First League title.

Finally, this autumn it qualified to the Champions League group stage. It therefore came as no surprise to see a Steaua footballer designated as footballer of the year 2013 at the recent Romanian Football Gala held in Bucharest by the Journalists Sports Club and the Romanian Footballers’ Association. Alexandru Bourceanu was named footballer of the year 2013. Bourceanu is team captain at Steaua. He is also the player with the most consistent performance on the pitch. Bourceanu bested Alexandru Maxim of VfB Stuttgart of Germany and goalkeeper Costel Pantilimon of Manchester City in scooping the award.

Alexandru Bourceanu was born on April 24, 1985 in Galati. He played for the under-21 team at the local side Dunarea, where he also made his debut in the senior team. In 2008, after Dunarea was relegated to the third tier, Bourceanu was spotted by one of the scouts from Otelul Galati, which immediately signed him up. He played for Otelul up until 2009, when he got transferred to Timisoara.

He spent two whole seasons here, helping the team secure a second place in the league tables in the 2010-2011 season. Unfortunately, FC Politehnica Timisoara failed to secure a license to play in the next season due to outstanding debts, and the team was relegated. At that point, Bourceanu was signed by Steaua.

Alexandru Bourceanu made his debut in European competitions with Timisoara. In July 2009, he has part of the lineup that held Shakhtar Donetsk of Ukraine to a 2-all draw in the Champions League preliminaries. That year, Timisoara failed to qualify to the main group stage, but managed to secure their presence in the Europa League.

Bourceanu was drafted into Romania’s team in 2009, when he was sent onto the pitch in a friendly match against Croatia, which Romania lost 2-1 at home. For the next two years, Bourceanu was left out of the main squad, but was eventually recalled in 2011, a year when he gathered a total of 20 caps.

We need to take the rough with the smooth if we look back at Romanian football in 2014. The Romanian national squad had a very good run in the Euro 2016 qualifiers and at the end of the year they found themselves on top position in preliminary Group F and on position 15 in world rankings. However, none of the Romanian club teams managed to make headway into the European spring.

We begin our look back at Romanian football with inter-club competitions. In the European spring, Romania had no representative, as in late 2013 Steaua only managed to secure an unassuming 4th position in the Champions League’s Group E, while Pandurii Targu Jiu also came 4th in Europa League’s group E.

Steaua Bucharest is the winner of the 2013-2014 edition of Romania’s domestic championship which ended in May, with 77 points. Astra Giurgiu came on the runner-up position, with 72 points. In Romania’s Cup final, however, Astra secured a vigorous comeback, clinching a 4-2 win after the penalty shootout, although they were rated as underdogs in the game against Steaua. We recall that after regular and extra time, the scoreboard pointed to a blank draw.

Steaua and Astra also gave the start for the winter-summer season, as they were pitted against one another in Romania’s Super Cup. On July 11 on the National Arena, the scoreboard pointed to a 1-all draw after regular time. No goal was scored after extra time, while after the penalty shootout Astra secured a 5-3 win.

In the 2014-2015 season of League One’s domestic championship Steaua had an excellent run again, as they ended the home series on top position, with 43 points, being no less than nine points clear of the runner-up team CFR from Cluj.

Romania had four sides in the European cups. Steaua Bucharest made it through to the Champions League preliminaries, while CFR Cluj, Petrolul Ploiesti and Astra played in the Europa League qualifiers. Steaua managed to eliminate the Norwegian champions Stromsgodset and Aktobe, the champions of Kazakhstan, but were stopped in their tracks by Bulgaria’s champions Ludogoret Razgrad, after conceding a one-nil defeat at home and a one-nil defeat in Sofia; the points were sealed in the penalty shootout. The Romanian champions later played in the Europa League, ranking third in Group J, after Dinamo Kiev and Aalborg of Denmark and ahead Portuguese side Rio Ave. In the Europa League, Astra defeated Czech side Slovan Liberec and clinched a surprising result against French side Olympique Lyon, two-one away and nil-one at home. However, in the league’s D group, the Romanian side ranked 4th after Red Bull Salzburg, Celtic Glasgow and Dinamo Zagreb. Also in Europa League, Petrolul Ploiesti obtained a win against the Albanians from Flamurtari Vlora; they next met Czech side Viktoria Plzen, which they eliminated after a one-all draw at home and a four-nil away win. Sadly, a double defeat in the play-offs against Dinamo Zagreb blew away their chances for a place in the next round of the competition.

CFR Cluj had the shortest-lived presence in the European cups. They secured a victory against Serbian side Jagodina, but were eliminated after having conceded a double defeat to Byelorussian side Dinamo Minsk.

For Romania’s national squad 2014 was an excellent year. The season kick-off promisingly, with a friendly match against Argentina. Played at home on National Arena stadium in front of a 45-thousand strong crowd, the match ended in a blank draw. Romania then played another two friendly matches. On May 31, Romania eased past Albania 1-nil, while on June 4th it lost narrowly 2-1 to Algeria, a team qualified to the World Cup in Brazil.

In September, Romania kicked off the qualifying campaign for the 2016 European Championships to be held in France. In Piraeus, Romania secured an important 1-nil away in over Greece. In October, Victor Piturca’s trainees played another two matches. In Bucharest, the team drew against Hungary 1-all, then won against Finland away from home, 2-nil. Victor Piturca then stepped down, being replaced at the helm of the first team by Anghel Iordanescu.

In November, Romania took 1st place in Group F after defeating Northern Ireland in Bucharest 2-nil. The year ended with a 2-nil home win in the friendly match against Denmark. It’s also worth mentioning the substantial improvement in FIFA standings for Romania in 2014. From being ranked 32nd in December 2013, Romania is now ranked 15th.

2013 brought a lot of remarkable achievements for Romanian sports, such as European titles in several sports, weightlifting, fencing, gymnastics and rowing. However, the most spectacular of evolutions was that of tennis player Simona Halep.

She climbed from 47th to 11th place in the world standings, and was designated by WTA the Most Improved Player of the Year. The last Romanian to accomplish that was Virginia Ruzici in 1978. For this reason, we selected her as Athlete of the Year.

Simona’s journey started in May last year in Rome. She qualified to the semi-finals, defeating several top players. Some of them were two of the favorites, such as no. 4, Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland, and no. 13, Roberta Vinci of Italy. Let us not forget also Jelena Jankovic of Serbia, former no. 1 in the world. Simona was bested by Serena Williams, the main favourite in the competition, 6-3, 6-0.

Then followed the victory in the Nuremberg WTA tournament, with prizes totalling 235,000 dollars. She eventually disposed of Andrea Petkovich of Germany 6-3, 6-3.

After Nuremberg, she won several WTA championships, including those in Budapest, New Haven and Sofia. She got very close to the top 10 list, which only two Romanians have ever reached, Virginia Ruzici, who got to number 8, and Irina Sparlea, who got to number 7.

At the end of the season, Simona said she would no longer work with coach Adrian Marcu, who trained her in the second half of the year. However, she is still holding on to Virginia Ruzici, who is her manager.

To wrap up our sports feature, let us remind you that Simona Halep will start the new WTA season in Sydney, Australia, between January 5th and 11th.