Sports weekend

The latest from tennis and football

Florin Orban, 08.04.2022, 13:45

Romanian tennis player Simona Halep has disclosed the
name of her new coach. Halep will be working with French coach Patrick
Mouratoglou who for ten years had been training Serena Williams. Under his
supervision, Williams won ten Grand Slam tournaments. Also, Serena Williams
twice won the Australian Open and the Roland Garros tournaments, as well as the
Wimbledon and the US open tournaments, three times each. Since February this
year, Halep has been training at Mouratoglou’s Academy in Nice. We recall Halep
stopped working with Adrian Marcu and Daniel Dobre, the two Romanians who
trained Halep ahead of the Australian Open.

In news from football, on Thursday Universitatea Cluj
grabbed a 1-nil home win against Steaua București. It was the third round’s last
fixture as part of the Second League’s Group 1. Petrolul Ploiești are at the
top of the table with 51 points, followed by FC Hermannstadt, with 48. 3rd-placed are Universitatea Cluj, with 47 points, while Steaua are 4th-placed,
with 41. Concordia Chiajna and Unirea Slobozia are 5th and 6th-placed,
with 40 and 34 points, respectively. At the end of the championship, the first
two teams will benefit from a direct promotion to League One. 3rd
and 4th- placed teams will play a playoff fixture against League One’s
8th and 7th-placed teams in Group 2. Steaua Bucharest are not officially entitled to being
granted a promotion. Steaua belongs to the National Defense Ministry. According
to the Sports Law, a public law club cannot play in League One, which is a
professional competition.

This coming weekend will see matches being played,
counting towards the 4th round as part of League One’s Group 1/Group
2 stage. In Group 2 on Friday, Academica Clinceni play Chindia Târgoviște,
while Dinamo Bucharest face FC U Craiova. In Arad,
on Saturday, Rapid Bucharest take on the local side UTA. On Sunday, FC Botoșani play a home game against Sepsi Sfântu
Gheorghe. In Medias on Monday, Gaz Metan play CS Mioveni. Rapid and FC Botoșani are at the top of the table, with 29 points each,
followed by Sepsi, with 27. With a
minus of 13 points, Gaz Metan Medias are at the bottom of the table and are highly
unlikely to avoid relegation. The same goes for Academica Clinceni, with a mere
3 points on their record sheet. As of late, both teams have been repeatedly
downgraded because of unpaid debuts. Four other teams are trying hard to avoid
playing playoff fixtures. They are Dinamo, with 13 points, Chindia and CS
Mioveni, each with 19 points, and FC U Craiova, with 22.

In Group 1 on Saturday, in Pitesti, FC Argeș play Farul
Constanța. In round 4’s derby, in Craiova, in the south, on Sunday Universitatea
take on CFR Cluj. On Monday, FCSB face FC Voluntari. CFR Cluj are still at the top of the table, with 45 points. FCSB and Universitatea
Craiova follow, with 37 and 33 points, respectively.

(EN)