Monica Niculescu

Bucharest, June 30 /Agerpres/ - Chairman of the Romanian Tennis Federation (FRT) Ion Tiriac announced on Wednesday that the Monica Niculescu- Raluca Olaru duo will be the only Romanian athletes qualified for the tennis competition at the Tokyo Olympic Games. "Competing for the Romanian tennis in Tokyo will be a women's double, I mean Monica Niculescu and Raluca Olaru.

Romanian tennis players Patricia Tig and Irina Begu on Monday advanced to the women's singles third round of the 235,238- USD Phillip Island Trophy WTA 250 tennis tournament in Melbourne, Australia. Twenty-six-year old Tig, world number 56, defeated in the second round British Francesca Jones, 20, world number 245 WTA, 6-1 6-4 in an hour and 24 minutes.

Romanians Monica Niculescu, Patricia Tig and Simona Halep won doubles matches at the Gippsland Trophy (WTA 500) tournament in Melbourne on Tuesday, with total prizes of 565,530 dollars. The pair Monica Niculescu / Patricia Tig won 6-3, 6-3 versus 4th seeds Andreja Klepac (Slovenia) / Elise Mertens (Belgium), in just 66 minutes.

Romanian-Japanese pair Monica Niculescu/Misaki Doi on Wednesday qualified in Melbourne for the second round of the women's doubles event at the Australian Open tennis tournament, the first Grand Slam of the year, after defeating 6-7 (5-7), 6-4, 6-2 the pair Ana Kalinskaia (Russia)/Yulia Putintseva (Kazakhstan).

The pair made up of Romanian tennis player Monica Niculescu and Japanese tennis player Misaki Doi qualified on Monday for the quarterfinals of the women's doubles at the WTA tournament in Shenzen (China) - Shenzhen Open, with total prizes worth 775,000 US dollars, after defeating the duo made up of Ekaterina Alexandrova (Russia) / Oksana Kalashnikova (Georgia), with a score of 6-2, 6-2.

Romanian tennis player Simona Halep has climbed one spot advancing to the third position in the world ranking of professional tennis players (Women's Tennis Association - WTA), released on Monday.

The pair made up of Romanian player Monica Niculescu and Russian Ana Blinkova qualified on Thursday for the doubles semifinals of the Open de Limoges WTA 125 K tournament (France), with total prizes of 125,000 dollars, by defeating Sofia Sapatava (Georgia) and Emily Webley-Smith (United Kingdom), 6-2, 6-1. It took the main seeds only 46 minutes to win.

Romanian tennis player Simona Halep, world number four, will play a qualifier in the first round of the US Open tournament, the last Grand Slam of the year, according to the draw in New York on Thursday. Halep, who won the Wimbledon title this summer, lost in the first round at last year's tournament in Flushing Meadows.

Simona Halep, Mihaela Buzarnescu, Irina Begu, Monica Niculescu and Raluca Olaru have been nominated by non-playing captain Florin Segarceanu for the Fed Cup tennis semi-finals in Rouen, France, April 20-21, the Romanian Tennis Federation reported on Monday.

Romanian tennis player Sorana Cirstea defeated US's Danielle Lao 6-3 6-4 in the first qualifying round of the women's singles event at the 9,035,428-USD BNP Paribas Open tournament in Indian Wells (California). The 28-year-old Cirstea, world number 98, prevailed in one hour and 15 minutes over 27-year-old Lao, world number 153.