Sports Flash

The latest in Romanian sports

Florin Orban, 31.08.2023, 13:45

The Romanian tennis player Sorana Cîrstea qualified for the third round of the US Open tournament, the last Grand Slam competition of the year, after defeating the Russian Ana Kalinskaia 6-3, 6-4, on Wednesday, in New York. Cîrstea, seed number 30, won in 65th minute. She thus equaled her best performance at Flushing Meadows. Sorana Cîrstea has never passed the third round at the American Open, a phase she reached in 2009, 2019 and 2020. Last year, the Romanian player lost in the second round. Also on Wednesday, at the US Open, the pair made up of the Romanian Gabriela Ruse and the Ukrainian Marta Kostiuk qualified for the second round of the women’s doubles. Gabriela and Marta defeated another Romanian-Ukrainian pair, Irina Begu and Anhelina Kalinina, score 7-5, 6-2.

Romania got off to a bad start at the European Men’s Volleyball Championship. In Tel Aviv, in group D, the Romanian players were defeated by Portugal 3-0. Also on Wednesday, the defending Olympic champion France defeated Turkey 3-0. In the first match of the group, Israel defeated Greece 3-2 on Tuesday evening.

This week will see matches played in the play-off phase of the Romanian Football Cup, the 2023-2024 edition. The four first league teams that played on Tuesday and Wednesday are moving on. On Tuesday, Oţelul Galati defeated FC Bacău, from the third league, 3-1. FC Voluntari had the upper hand on Şelimbăr, from the second echelon, score 2-1. Dinamo Bucharest won, also 2-1, the game with the second league team Metaloglobus Bucharest. On Wednesday, FC Botoşani won against Mioveni, from the second league, score 2-0. The new format of the Romanian Cup, inaugurated in the previous edition, provides for the participation in the play-off phase of 32 teams of which 24 qualified from the previous round and 8 from the first league. The ranking in the first echelon includes the four ranked teams at the end of the play-out of the previous edition of the championship, on the 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th places, together with the two winners of the play offs for remaining or acceding to the First League and the two new wild card teams of the current edition of the championship. (LS)