Sports roundup

The latest from tennis, womens and mens, rugby and football.

Florin Orban, 18.02.2019, 13:53

The two tennis tournaments held late last week saw Romanian competitors reaching as far as the finals. In the women’s event in Doha, Simona Halep sustained a defeat by Belgian challenger Elise Mertens in three sets. Halep had a good start, won the first set, 6-3, then Mertens came from behind and won the second set, 6-4. In the decisive set the Belgian sealed the fate of the match with a 6-3 win. This latest result earned Halep the 2nd position according to the WTA rankings. Simona will prove her mettle in Dubai this week, in a tournament with almost 3 million dollars up for grabs.

In the ATP tournament in Rotterdam, the Romanian-Dutch pair made up of Horia Tecau and Jean-Julien Rojer sustained a 7-6, 7-6 defeat by the French — Finnish pair made up of Jeremy Chardy and Henri Kontinen. It took Chardy and Kontinen only one hour and 41 minutes to win the match. We recall that in 2015, Tecau and Rojer won the Rotterdam tournament and played the final in 2014.

Now it’s news from rugby, as on Saturday in Botosani, the national squad secured a 38-10 win against Germany, in its debut fixture at the 2019 Rugby Europe International Championship. Romania’s lineup succeeded six tries, through Ionuţ Dumitru, Ionel Melinte, Johan Van Heerden, Florin Surugiu, Vlăduţ Popa and Daniel Plai. Four of the tries were successful conversions by Florin Vlaicu. Also on Saturday, Russia thrashed Belgium, 64-7. On Sunday, Georgia outclassed Spain, 24-10. Georgia is at the top of the table with 8 points. Russia is the runner-up team, with 6 points, while 3rd-placed is Romania, with 5 points. Romania’s next match is the one against Spain on March 3rd, away from home.

We go out with news from football, as this past weekend saw games being played, counting towards the 24th round of domestic League One. On Friday, Poli Iasi grabbed a 1-nil away win against Viitorul Constanta. On Saturday, in Pitesti, Universitatea Craiova defeated FC Hermannstadt, 1-nil, while CFR Cluj drew in the home fixture against Astra Giurgiu, 1-all.

Three games were played on Sunday. FC Voluntari’s home confrontation against Dunarea Calarasi ended in a blank draw, while in Medias, the local side Gaz Metan conceded a nil-1 defeat to Sepsi Sfantu Gheorghe. In Bucharest, Dinamo wasted its last opportunity to reach the playoffs, having lost to Gaz Metan Medias, 1-2. Concordia

Chiajna face FCSB in the 24th round’s last fixture on Monday. CFR Cluj continue to be at the top of the table.