Athlete of the week

Tennis player Ana Bogdan

Florin Orban, 25.07.2023, 13:45

The TWA 125 BCR Iasi Open is the most important tennis competition scheduled in eastern Romania. The event took place last week
and had 100 thousand Euro in prize money. Among the seeded competitors were
four of the world’s top 100 women tennis players. Irina Begu was top-seeded. Second-seeded
was the winner of the Iasi tournament’s 2022 edition, Ana Bogdan.

Begu and Bogdan were pitted against one another
in the final which Ana Bogdan won, 6-2, 6-3, this past Sunday. Reason enough
for Radio Romania International to designate Ana Bogdan the Athlete of the
week.

Ana had a rather unassuming debut in the Iasi tournament. In the first
round, it took Ana Bogdan two hours and 21 minutes of play to outclass WTA 210th-placed,
19-year-old Barbora Palicová
of the Czech Republic. Bogdan lost the first set, 2-6, managed a hard-fought
win in the second, 7-5, and had no problem winning the third set, 6-1. Ana
Bogdan’s round-of-last-16 confrontation was not easy either. It took Ana two
hours and 17 minutes of play to defeat WTA 433rd, 32-year-old Conny Perrin of Switzerland, 6-4, 3-6, 6-1. In the quarterfinals, Ana Bogdan was pitted against another Swiss opponent, 5th-seded in
Iasi, WTA 131st, 22-year-old Simona Waltert. The Romanian had no problem
defeating Waltert, 6-nil, 6-4. Ana Bogdan’s longest match was the semifinal
confrontation against WTA 166, 26-year-old Raluka Serban, a Romanian tennis player
competing for Cyprus. It took Bogdan two hours and 42 minutes to secure 6-3,
4-6, 6-3 win against Serban. Then the final against Irina Begu followed.

Ana Bogdan was born on November 25th, 1992, in Sinaia. She
turned pro in 2007. In 2009 Ana Bogdan was second-placed according to the juniors’
world rankings. Slowly but surely, Ana Bogdan climbed up the WTA rankings until
2018. She maintained her position around the 100th-place, yet in
2022 and 2023 she managed to climb up even higher. At the moment, Ana Bogdan
has accomplished her career-best so far, the 39th place according to
the WTA rankings. Of the Romanian tennis players Ana Bogdan is second only to
Sorana Cirstea, who is 32nd-placed.