Sports Roundup

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Florin Orban, 08.03.2021, 12:23

The Romanian-Latvian pair made up of Monica Niculescu and Jelena
Ostapenko lost to Nicole Melichar of the United States and Demi Schuurs of the
Netherlands 6-2, 2-6, 10-8 in the women’s doubles final at the WTA tournament
in Doha, totaling some $500 thousand in prize money. Monica Niculescu has won 9
WTA doubles titles and played another 18 finals, while Jelena Ostapenko has won
3 titles in 4 finals.

In other news from tennis, Horia Tecău of Romania and Kevin Krawietz
of Germany lost to Nikola Metkic and Mate Pavic of Croatia, 7-6, 6-2 in the
men’s doubles final at the ATP tournament in Rotterdam, totaling some $980
thousand in prizes. Tecău and Krawietz had a remarkable run in Rotterdam
considering this was their first tournament together. Last year Tecău ended his
partnership with Jean-Julien Rojer of the Netherlands, while earlier this year
he paired up with Marcelo Melo of Brazil.

The Romanian handball club CSM Bucharest has made an important step
towards qualifying to the Champions League quarterfinals after winning 33-24
against Romania’s champions, SCM Râmnicu Vâlcea, on Saturday, in the first leg
of the round of 16. Cristina Neagu was the top scorer for CSM with 13 goals,
and was also declared MVP. Goalkeeper Jelena Grubisic also contributed to CSM’s
win with 16 saves.

The Romanian rugby team had a poor start of the 2021 Rugby Europe
Championship season after losing to Russia, 18-13 away from home. In the next
fixture Romania will play Portugal, on March 13, away from home. The 2021 and 2022 seasons of Rugby Europe
Championship count as qualifying criteria for the 2023 World Cup.

We go out with news from football. This weekend saw matches counting
towards the 26th round of the Romanian domestic championship. On
Friday, Chindia Târgoviște won 1-nil against Sepsi Sfântu Gheorghe, while
Viitorul Constanța drew 1-all against Academica Clinceni. On Saturday, in
Craiova, the local side Universitatea won narrowly 1-nil against FC Botoșani,
while in Arad, CFR Cluj grabbed a 1-nil win over UTA. On Sunday, Astra Giurgiu
won 2-1 against FC Hermannstadt, while FCSB won 1-nil against Gaz Metan Mediaș
in a match played on National Arena stadium in Bucharest. The round’s last
matches will be played on Monday: FC Argeș will play Poli Iași, while FC
Voluntari will take on Dinamo Bucharest. FCSB and CFR Cluj both top the league
tables with 57 points, separated by goal-average, followed by Craiova with 50
points. (V.P.)