Tennis

Florin Orban, 05.02.2020, 12:04

In other news from tennis, the Fed
Cup, the premier international competition in women’s tennis, is back in the
news. On Friday and Saturday, Romania are facing Russia in the World Group in
Cluj, western Romania. The winner will qualify for the final tournament of the
Fed Cup, which will be hosted by Budapest between the 14th and the
19th of April. The Romanian team is without Simona Halep, Irina Begu
and Monica Niculescu, who decided not to play so as to concentrate their
efforts on the WTA tournaments with a view to qualifying for the Olympic Games
in Tokyo this summer. Under the circumstances, Romania’s non-playing captain Florin
Segarceanu has capped the following players for the match against Russia: Ana
Bogdan, no. 90 in the world, Irina Bara, no. 160, Gabriela Ruse, no. 166,
Jaqueline Cristian, no. 197, and Raluca Olaru, no. 47 in the world doubles
rankings. Irina Bara, Gabriela Ruse and Jaqueline Cristian are part of
Romania’s Fed Cup team for the first time.

Let us also note that Romania never
faced Russia in a Fed Cup match, but did play against the former USSR, first in
1978 in Melbourne, in the quarterfinals of the World Group, and then in 1986 in
Prague, in the second round of the World Group. Romania lost both of these
matches.