Simona Halep and Marius Copil named Romanian players of the year
A week after they had been including in Romania’s Olympic tennis team together with Mihaela Buzarnescu and Horia Tecau, world number 1 Simona Halep and Marius Copil have been named Romanian players of the year. The Romanian Tennis Federation organized the Romanian Tennis Gala on Tuesday night and while Halep had no rivals that would chase the award it was much interesting to see who will earn it in the men's section. Horia Tecau is a top-30 doubles players but it was Copil who emerged at the top following two ATP finals he played in 2018, including the one in Basel against Roger Federer when he even had a chance to stun the home hero.
On the other hand, Irina Begu and Horia Tecau were named doubles Athletes of the Year, while Filip Jianu and Selma Cadar secured junior honors. Despite a disappointing end of the season, Halep won 46 matches in 2018 and she was the most consistent player on the Tour, reaching six titles and lifting trophies in Shenzhen, Montreal and Roland Garros, her maiden Major crown. She was also the finalist at the Australian Open, Rome and Cincinnati, creating a huge lead over the rest of the field and completing her second year-end number 1 season despite winning no matches after Cincinnati, struggling with a back injury that forced her to call it a season earlier and to miss the WTA Finals.
The 28-year-old Marius Copil was ranked outside the top-90 when the season started and after suffering an early exit in Pune and Melbourne he picked up his game to reach the first ATP final in Sofia, losing to Mirza Basic in three tight sets. The results were not there in the following couple of months but he managed to gain some points in s-Hertogenbosch where he played in the quarters and in Washington where he lost in the third round to Andy Murray after more than three hours of an epic fight!
Still, the best was yet to come for Marius in his last event of the season, qualifying for the main draw in Basel and beating Marin Cilic and Alexander Zverev for the place in his second and the biggest ATP final, getting a chance to compete against Roger Federer in his hometown. The Romanian was in front in both sets but it wasn't enough to send him over the top, losing 7-6 6-4 but earning 320 points that pushed him into the top-60, his best year-end ranking in a career.
from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/2GgZ5cQ
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