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Florin Orban, 18.01.2019, 15:59

Romania has only one representative in the singles contest of the Australian Open. On Thursday, the world’s number one player, Simona Halep of Romania secured a three-set win 6-3, 6-7, 6-4 against WTA-37th Sofia Kenin of the USA and qualified for the competition’s third round. The Romanian will be up against Venus Williams on Saturday. The US challenger leads 3-2 in head-to-head contests, but Halep won the latest two matches.

In the men’s contest Marius Copil, the ATP 60th, was stopped in his tracks by 21st seeded David Goffin of Belgium, who won the game 5-7, 7-5, 6-2, 6-4. The Romanian’s performance will be rewarded with 105 thousand dollars and 45 ATP points. He equaled his 2015 performance, when he also made it to the second round.

In the women’s doubles, Romanian challengers Irina Bara and Monica Niculescu have qualified for the round of 16 after securing a win against the 6th-seeded pair made up of Lucie Hradecka of the Czech Republic and Ekaterina Makarova of Russia, whom they outperformed 6-4, 7-6.

Lots have been drawn for the Romanian Cup’s quarterfinals pitting the contest’s only second leaguer, FK Csikszereda, against trophy holder Universitatea Craiova. FC Hermannstadt will be up against Viitorul Constanta while Dunarea Calarasi will be playing Astra Giurgiu. The most interesting game seems to be the one between defending champions CFR Cluj and Sepsi Sfantu Gheorghe on the latter’s home turf. All the aforementioned games are to be played between February 26th and 28th in a single round on the turf of the side occupying a lower position in the standings.