Well, it was a mixed day for our two new queens of tennis today. Raluca had a very good win, 7-5 6-4 over top 100 Russian Alla Kudriatseva which is 2 years her senior and higher ranked. Very good victory and it will bring her good ranking points! Unfortunately though Sorana had a bad loss to Neha Uberoi in the same tournament (Fes WTA) which was unexpected being as Uberoi was a lucky loser and lost quite easily to Raluca on the last round of qualification... Raluca seems to be much the more consistent of the two just now and her ranking is reflecting that...
Meanwhile, with the other players...
Great 2 weeks for 15 year old Simona Halep! She won two ITF tournaments in Bucuresti without any difficulties and she gains her first WTA ranking inside the top 900. She definitely seems to be a one to watch on the future! I've seen some photos of her and she is very physically in good shape for such a young player, muscle and so on. For sure it seems like it would give her an edge over her rivals, so often we saw good Romanian juniors not advance in senior competition because they are not physically fit enough to make the transition (Niculescu and Gojnea are two I think of straight away)
Madalina Gojnea lost R1 of 75K Zagreb challenger to Iekaterina Ivanova... Not unexpected because Ivanova is ranked above her by around 40 places, but she really had no problems to beat Madalina and I find it disappointing that it seems Madi couldn't even push her, this was not such a hard first round as she could have had. Madi was such a good junior but she just can't step out and her time is running shorter... Something needs to be changed and to me it seems as though she would need a different coach because she is too talented to stay at 200.
Monica Niculescu lost straight sets to Yvonne Meusberger in the same tourney, but Yvonne was 3rd seed so that always looked to be a tough match for her.
Monica had a better week last week at 75K in Lebanon:
$75,000 Jounieh Lebanon
C75 07 May 2007 to 12 May 2007 Entry : DA Clay (O)
32 W Nina BRATCHIKOVA (RUS) 6-0 6-1
16 W Joanna SAKOWICZ (POL) 3-6 6-4 7-6(4)
QF L Laura POUS-TIO (ESP) 2-6 6-3 2-6
Two good wins and a good performance against Pous-Tio who is a good claycourter.
Madi also reached QF, had a very good win over Nagy but then lost to a Slovak player ranked almost 100 below her...
Anda Perianu had a much better week at 50K Sea Island:
$50,000 Sea Island, GA USA
C50 24 Apr 2007 to 29 Apr 2007 Entry : DA Clay (O)
32 W Vanessa HENKE (GER) 4-6 6-2 7-6(4)
16 W Bethanie MATTEK (USA) 6-2 6-4
QF W Angelika BACHMANN (GER) 4-6 6-4 6-4
SF W Alla KUDRYAVTSEVA (RUS) 6-2 7-5
FR L Julie DITTY (USA) 3-6 2-6
Good wins against Kudryavtseva Mattek and Henke :yeah:
Current Romanian Rankings:
100 (92) GALLOVITS, EDINA ROU
302.00 0.00 27
146 (150) OLARU, IOANA RALUCA ROU (won one ITF tourney reached finals of other)
212.25 0.00 16
172 (170) CIRSTEA, SORANA ROU (after her WTA success she still ranks high)
167.50 0.00 12
176 (180) MATEI, SIMONA ROU
163.50 0.00 22
184 (185) PERIANU, ANDA ROU
157.50 0.00 17
202 (212) GOJNEA, MADALINA ROU
144.00 0.00 22
205 (206) NICULESCU, MONICA ROU
137.75 0.00 22
244 (244) MIHALACHE, MAGDA ROU
103.50 0.00 23
263 (253) BUZARNESCU, MIHAELA ROU
97.25 0.00 13
284 (283) SZATMARI, AGNES ROU
86.00 0.00 24
335 (359) UNGUR, LIANA ROU
63.50 0.00 11
422 (414) CORDUNEANU, CORINA ROU
44.00 0.00 8
519 (517) ENACHE, DIANA ROU
29.75 0.00 16
521 (510) SERE, ANAMARIA ROU
29.50 0.00 10
532 (511) DULGHERU, ALEXANDRA ROU
28.00 0.00 10
561 (569) CADANTU, ALEXANDRA ROU
24.75 0.00 12
594 (583) TOUT, ANTONIA XENIA ROU
22.25 0.00 18
622 (614) ANDREI, LAURA IOANA ROU
20.00 0.00 14
631 (652) VAIDEANU, ANDREEA ROU
19.00 0.00 10
664 (658) GAE, DIANA ROU
17.00 0.00 11
701 (695) GOLIMBIOSCHI, OANA-ELENA ROU
15.25 0.00 8
735 (777) MITU, CRISTINA ROU
13.50 0.00 6
810 (742) NICULESCU, GABRIELA ROU
11.00 0.00 7
821 (788) CRACIUN, MARIA LUIZA ROU
10.50 0.00 9
847 (836) CIULEI, RALUCA ROU
9.75 0.00 12
868 (801) POPA, ALEXANDRA ROU
9.00 0.00 6
880 (957) BEGU, IRINA ROU
8.75 0.00 5
887 (NR) HALEP, SIMONA ROU (great from Simona!)
8.50 0.00 3
899 (888) NEGREANU, DAIANA ROU
8.25 0.00 7
931 (922) IOVA, IONELA-ANDREEA ROU
7.50 0.00 5
941 (934) DAMASCHIN, DELIA ROU
7.25 0.00 7
954 (879) BONIFATE, BIANCA ROU
7.00 0.00 6
982 (974) SIMION, BEATRIS ROU
6.50 0.00 7
1001 (997) DABIJA, ELORA ROU
6.00 0.00 4
1063 (1059) STANICA, OANA ROU
5.25 0.00 3
1083 (1079) CONSTANTINESCU, ANA-MARIA ROU
5.00 0.00 4
1104 (1102) GHIORGHIU, ANTIA ROU
4.75 0.00 4
1165 (1166) BUNEA, MIHAELA ROU
4.25 0.00 6
1173 (1102) RADU, ALICE ROU
4.00 0.00 3
1198 (1197) BARA, NICOLETA ROU
3.75 0.00 3
1316 (1136) BRAICA, ANDREEA
Unforunately not a lot of rises for our girls, which is disappointing as clay is a favorite surface for most of them.