Sports Roundup

A roundup of the most important sporting events

Florin Orban, 10.01.2022, 13:45

Romanian tennis
player Simona Halep on Sunday won the WTA Melbourne Summer Set 1 tournament,
totaling some 240 thousand dollars in prize money. In the final, Halep defeated
Veronika Kudermetova of Russia, 6-2, 6-3. This was the 23rd WTA
tournament won by Simona Halep throughout her career, and the first after nearly
a year. It was also a good test ahead of the Australian Open, a competition set
to kick off on January 17. The former world no. 1 has cancelled her
participation in the Sydney tournament this week in order to prepare for the
Australian Open. At the Melbourne Summer Set 2, the pair made up of Irina Begu
and Nina Stojanovic of Serbia on Saturday were ousted in the doubles semi-finals by Bernarda
Pera of the United States and Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic, score
7-6, 6-1.

The Romanian men’s
national handball team on Sunday qualified to the second phase of the 2023
World Cup preliminaries after defeating Moldova 33-23 in Cluj-Napoca. In the
other group fixtures so far, Romania defeated Israel 33-30, while Israel
defeated Moldova 42-31. Cyprus has cancelled its participation in the
tournament due to COVID-19 infections and lost all matches by default. The top
two teams, Romania and Israel, will advance to the next phase. Romania has so
far taken part in 14 editions of the World Cup, the last time in 2011.

In women’s
handball, this weekend saw matches counting towards Champions League. In Group
C, Măgura Cisnădie defeated Storhamar of Norway 33-28 at home. In Group B,
Minaur Baia Mare won 34-32 against Zagłębie Lubin of Poland at home. Both teams
are top of their group tables. In Group C, the match pitting SCM Râmnicu Vâlcea
against Viborg of Denmark was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. (VP)