Sports flash
The latest from tennis, judo, rowing and football
Florin Orban, 11.05.2023, 13:45
Romanian tennis player
Sorana Cîrstea this past Wednesday as part of the first round of the WTA 1000 tennis
tournament in Rome, an event with 3, 600, 000 Euros in prize money, defeated US
opponent Katie Volynets, 2-6, 6-3, 6-4. Sorana had a hard time defeated Katie,
after two hours and 25 minutes of play. In the second round, Sorana will face WTA 20th-placed tennis player,
Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko. Another Romanian tennis player competing in the Rome
tournament, Gabriela Ruse, had no problem defeating Czech opponent Linda
Fruhvirtova, 6-1, 6-nil. Gabriela will next take on WTA 15th-placed tennis player, player, Brazil’s Beatriz Haddad Maia. The third Romanian tennis player competing in the Rome tournament, Ana Bogdan, has also emerged as a first-round winner, defeating Japan’s Nao Hibino, 7-5, 6-nil. In the second round, Bogdan
takes on WTA number 4 tennis player, the French Caroline Garcia.
The World Judo Championship
is underway in Qatar’s Doha. So far, the Romanian delegation has had a lackluster
performance. On Wednesday, in the 63-kilogram category, in the first round, Florentina Ivanescu sustained
a defeat by Korean opponent Chaewon Shin. For the sixth time around, Clarisse Agbegnenou of France won the world title in the 63-kilogram
category. In the final, Clarisse defeated Slovenia’s Andreja Leski through
ippon. The bronze medals went to Hungarian judoka Szofi Özbas and the Dutch Joanne
van Lieshout.
The ICF Canoe Sprint World Cup 2023 will be
held in Hungary’s Szeged, from Thursday and all through to Sunday. The world
champion in the men’s C-1 1,000m sprint canoeing event, the Romanian Catalin
Chirila, is among the participants. Chirila
is one the Romanian rowers standing great chances to win an Olympic medal in
the 2024 edition of the Paris Olympics.
In news from football, in a derby
confrontation counting towards the Romanian Second League’s Group 1, on
Wednesday Poli Iaşi grabbed a 5-1 home win against Steaua Bucharest. Mathematically
speaking, Poli Iasi has already been promoted to the Superleague. Runner-up
team Steaua is lawfully denied promotion irrespective of its position according
to the Second league’s final rankings.