Tennis is an individual sport, first and foremost. Well often a player has their support team around them, coaches and family, however lower ranked players often only travel with one person or even no one. There are rare team events like the Olympics and Billie Jean King Cup of course where team mates play together for their country but ultimately a Tennis player plays for themself. Yet they do represent their country, in this case Romania. Furthermore, many of the Romanian players have grown up together and formed good relationships and friendships with their contemporaries, so when they play at the same tournaments together, it can be a huge comfort to have those bonds in place. They can support each other and share experiences and there is healthy competition as they all push each other to be the best in their country. Currently, there are a number of young Romanian girls all in their late teens/early twenties progressing well on the ITF tour. Anca Todoni, who is mentioned in an interview with one of her coaches elsewhere on this website, is already well established on the main tour, secured in the Top 100 and winning titles. However, there are many talented youngsters not a million miles behind her.

Two of the very best of these players are Maria Sara Popa and Stefania Bojica. These two are facing off in the semi final of the W15 Kursumlijska Banja tomorrow. This is already their third career meeting and promising to be an exciting rivalry for the future. After a quick preview of this match I would like to revisit some classic all Romanian matches in the last few years…

Stefania ‘Stefi’ Bojica

Stefi has not long turned twenty, still looking for for that first singles title but has experienced finals and got close a few times. She is an outstanding doubles player with great footwork and super hands. She has a good all round singles game and showing excellent fitness and endurance this year as she regularly goes deep in tournaments and grinds out long three set matches when needed. She has a strong mentality and a very positive attitude, she plays a lot of Team Tennis too and is a natural leader. It will be when, not if when she wins singles titles, and there will be an abundance of them when she does. Currently 411 in the world and shooting up the rankings regularly, I believe she will be well inside the Top 200 within the next year.

Maria Sara Popa

Maria, at 19 is younger than Stefi, which is surprising because there has been a lot of hype around her in Romania for several years now. She is ‘proper handed’ (if you have not read any of my Gabi Lee Text Commentaries – this means ‘left handed’) and her forehand is a hammer! Currently 662 in the world yet has been as high as 395. She has also won two ITF titles. Yet at the tail end of last year and the start of this one, she has struggled a little with injuries and confidence. She’s definitely looking like her old self again now though and comes into this match in good form. Maria, has won both of their previous meetings, the most recent this year also in Serbia in a very tight 7-5 7-6 victory. She also beat Stefi a couple of years ago in Romania 6-2 7-5. However, for me Stefi is a much better player now then back then. I love both of them but you probably want me to predict a winner don’t you? So you have to factor in the head to head and also Stefi had a three hour, three set quarter final and Maria won her quarter final in straight sets in half the time, that will play a part. I think they are going to go the distance for the first time and Maria will just have too much. But it should be a great match, and as fond as I am of both players I would like to see Stefi win because I think it would be good for the rivalry in the future. If Maria goes 3-0 tomorrow then it will be very tough for Stefi facing her further down the road. Goes without saying, hopefully whoever wins takes the title, anyway good luck to both – let’s look at some past Romanian Derbies as promised….

I have been very lucky to see three Romanian Derbies live and those are the three I would like to revisit however one of my favourite all Romanian matches was very recent, featuring my favourite player, Miriam Bulgaru in the second round of qualifying for the French Open where she faced Patricia Tig – there is already a full Text Commentary of this match elsewhere on this website so do check it out 🙂

Sorana Cirstea – Eastbourne 2023

Ana Bogdan – Eastbourne 2023

The first Romanian Derby I watched live was at Eastbourne 2023, the first round pitted qualifier Ana Bogdan against Sorana Cirstea. The interesting thing here was that the two had also met in the first round of Birmingham, only a couple of weeks earlier. Cirstea won that one 6-4 2-6 6-3. In Eastbourne Ana returned the favour with a very similar score line 6-3 2-6 6-3 extending the head to head to 3-1, the other two victories were back in 2017 and 2018. I watched Ana’s second round of qualifying the day before and she gave everything in a long three set match, as much as I love Sorana there was no way I could switch allegiances just like that, and Eastbourne is a very intimate tournament so I felt like it would be such an obvious betrayal in front of Ana I could not look her in the eye. It was a super match, Ana did so well that week, she went on to play that marathon third round at Wimbledon lasting 3 hours 40 minutes, I was there for that one, a heartbreaking defeat on a very hot day. However, an amazing summer for Ana that year. As for Sorana, I have watched her live 4 times now and she has lost them all. I feel so bad about that and that day I was in the enemy camp to make it even worse. Anyway, great match!

Transylvania Open 2024 semi final next in Cluj. Ana Bogdan again, this time against Jaqueline Cristian. This time I was Team Jaqi – and I will explain why; Jaqi was supposed to play my favourite player, Miriam Bulgaru in the first round, however Miri withdrew with illness shortly before the match and Jaqi played a Lucky Loser, I switched to Jaqi immediately and supported her all the way to the final. I had seen Jaqi at Wimbledon the following year and was really impressed when watching her live. I was surprised by the atmosphere, it seemed to be very pro Ana with not as much support for Jaqi so I had to shout a little louder. Ana won 6-3 3-6 6-4 another super match, I was there all week and it was the best match of the week. Ana had won both of the past meetings, they met the year before in Parma where Ana came through a final set tiebreak, so losing again late in a third set must have been tough for Jaqi. As I said earlier when talking about Maria and Stefi, the head to head plays a big part!

Gabi Ruse Iasi Open 2024

Jaqueline Cristian Iasi Open 2024

And finally, Jaqi again this time at the Iasi Open 2024. This time against Gabi Ruse. Jaqi owns this head to head 4-1 however Gabi’s only victory is a pretty painful one, she put her fellow Romanian out of French Open qualifying in the first round in 2023. I was Team Jaqi again, mainly because of Cluj earlier the same year, so felt that loyality but it was hard because Gabi, I have so much admiration for, she’s such a Fighter and has dealt with so much adversity in her career. It was another thriller, Jaqi won 6-4 6-7 6-2 both battled away but Gabi just ran out of energy a little towards the end but a super effort!

So that’s a very brief nod to some great Romanian Derbies! I’m sure tomorrow will be another thriller! Sadly there’s no Live stream but as I said at the start, this is only the beginning for Stefi and Maria, I think they will have many great matches on big stages all over the world in the coming years 🙂

UPDATE – POST SEMI FINAL

What a brilliant match between Stefi and Maria, 3 and a half hours of pure drama so many long games, so many plot points. Stefi won the first set convincingly and to Maria’s credit she started strong in set two, taking a 4-1 lead, Stefi came right back to 4-4 and even had a match point however Maria bounced back once more and won the second set. The final set edded and flowed throughout, both players locked in and had chances to pull away before Stefi finally sealed the door to get her first win against Maria and well deserved. But spare a thought too for Maria who was excellent today and gave everything. As predicted it was a thriller, what an exciting future these two have!