The preparation – on the court, in the gym, at the pool, but also the managerial one – for the tournaments that I will play in Florida is in full swing, but I took advantage of a free afternoon to write a little bit about the last week, when I played in the Romanian National Team Championships, for CS Rapid Bucharest. A strong team, which Alex, our manager, put together after the re-establishment of the club’s tennis section.
CS Rapid, National Team Champion 2025
In photo 1, from left to right: Mara, Cristina, Ştefan, Irina, me, Ruxi, Alexandra
Starting with the end, we became national champions, together with Ruxandra Bertea, Irina Bara, Cristina Dinu, Mara Gae, Alexandra Cadanţu Ignatik and Ilinca Amariei.
For me, this title is the third at the national level in two consecutive years, after those in 2024, when I became champion in Singles and Mixed Doubles.
This time, I have played two matches, singles and doubles, in each of the three encounters and I have won them all in two sets. Only Cristiana Todoni – Anca’s younger sister (18 years old) – gave me a fight in the second set, thanks to her good game, the result of the hard work she puts in to become better and create a first name for herself on the tour.
I’m glad I was able to help the team, whose honorable offer I had accepted back in July.
As I told you before, I am playing in the National Team Championships of several countries, and the system differs from one to another. For example, in Germany, Italy, France, the competition is basically held in May and June, over several weekends. The format of the matches is also different. In France, four singles and two doubles matches are played, in Italy, three singles and one doubles, and in Germany, six singles and three doubles.
In Romania, the club championship is played in October, over a week, and 5 singles and two doubles matches are played in one encounter.
This year, 7 teams signed up in the women’s competition. According to the singles ranking, our team, Rapid, had BYE in the first round and we entered directly into the final tournament of four teams, played in a round robin system.
Although, theoretically, our team was very strong, things got complicated because Ilinca Amariei could not play – I wish her a speedy full recovery and I expect her at many more matches between us -, Irina Bara made a comeback here after a longer absence, and Mara Gae got injured in the second day.
The poor physical condition of several Rapid players was compounded by the unfavorable weather, especially in the first day.
So the road to the title was increasingly difficult: after a 7-0 with Sportul Studenţesc [links to the day’s results in PDF format (the Men results also appear – source frt.ro], followed a 5-2 victory with CS Arc Pro and 4-3 with CSA Steaua.
In the first two meetings, I played doubles with Ruxandra Bertea, and in the last one, together with Irina Bara. This was also the deciding point for 4-2 and for the national champions title.
Alexandra Cadanţu Ignatik’s contribution was a very important one. She replaced Mara Gae in the decisive encounter and although she had played her last official match – before retiring from the sport – in February 2024, she won this one in two sets.
A good example of dedication given to her students by the now young coach, Alexandra, who has also started to have very good results in this regard. The most recent example, her player and my good friend, Ilinca Sagmar (17 years old) – I already wrote about her on the blog – who achieved the best result of her career last week: she advanced from the qualifying draw to the semifinals of the W15 Bol tournament, where she was stopped by the 1st seed.
So, the team spirit and the mutual encouragements during the matches helped us overcome all the difficulties. Coach Ştefan Enciu also supported us a lot, as did the fact that when you play for Rapid, even if not in football, you feel inspired by the spirit of this legendary club.
The next day, the Men’s Team of Rapid followed our footsteps, winning the title, also after a decisive match against CSA Steaua.
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Keeping the same subject of team competitions, now international ones, I am very happy that Ruxi Bertea, whom I admired in the last article, was selected by the new non-playing captain Alexandra Dulgheru for the Billie Jean King Cup play-off [November 14-16, Gorzow Wielkopolski, Poland, on hard indoor]. Our team is part of Group B together with Poland and New Zealand. The winner of this group and those of the other six promote to the Qualifications for the Final Tournament.
I am equally happy about the selection of my old friend, Gabriela Talabă Lee, who will make her debut at the age of 30 in the Romanian team. And I feel also encouraged by the recognition of the one with whom I started our professional tennis careers.
And Mara Gae, gets another chance to be in touch with professional tennis at a higher level.
The Romanian team’s quintet is led – in terms of the ranking – by Gabriela Ruse and completed by the “playing captain” Monica Niculescu. I hope that her huge experience, combined with Alexandra‘s, will help their younger colleagues, so that we can achieve a good result, despite that Iga Swiatek has confirmed her presence for the hosts.
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Changing the subject to individual competitions, I attach the 2026 WTA and ATP Calendars for those who don’t have them yet.
As for “ours” – the ITF Calendar, as usual it’s not yet available, not to mention that when it will come out, it will only be for the first 3 months.
I understand that there are more tournaments here, logistical and managerial problems, but we still have no idea how we will organize our schedule for the next year. We are still guessing, studying the one for the current year, always asking ourselves which tournaments are kept and if new ones will be organised.
Jokingly, I am thinking of proposing to the ITF management team, to facilitate us in collaboration with the airlines, the purchase of “completely open” tickets, meaning that the travel dates are optional, as well as the destinations.
Okay, I’ll leave you for now, because I still have 1000 things to do before I will cross the Ocean. I’m trying to get back to the blog as soon as possible, possibly even from Florida.
↓ Branded content by Cannoleria Decebal, my favorite restaurant in Bucharest ↓
