Simona Halep aims to resurrect Romanian tennis: “It’s a pity for our talent”

Worried about the future of the next Romanian tennis talents and not only, Simona Halep made a call-to-action during a press conference held at the Palace of the Parliament in Bucharest invoking the lack of investments in sports across the Balkan country.

“I didn’t come here for me, but for the  new generation. The new generation badly needs infrastructure, which is missing in our country. We badly need a sports hall to host all Fed Cup matches.” Halep said.

Simona knows that tennis is not such an accessible sport and, therefore, she requested support to help children pick up the sport that made her world-famous.

“There are many children who need financial support, especially when it comes to tennis, which is an expensive sport (…) I really launch a call for this cause, for an infrastructure in tennis. The Romanian tennis had many great results (…) It’s a real pity for our Romanian talent to not do anything, to not progress”, Simona emphasized.

Great Romanian sports personalities like Ilie Năstase, world number one in the 1970s and a five-times Grand Slam winner, and Nadia Comăneci, the first athlete to take a 10 at the Olympic Games.

Simona Halep’s call-to-action had almost immediate results. Ionuț Stroe, the Romanian Minister of Youth and Sports, reacted positively to her and the other champions’ words.

"Their request is more than normal. Unfortunately, in the last 7 years, this request was unidirectional. This time, they have someone to talk to. My door is always open.” the recently appointed liberal minister Ionut Stroe declared for Libertatea.

from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/31Uzlu9