Here is another great reason to write about tennis: the first ever WTA tournament held in Romania – BRD Bucharest Open. The rumor about this tournament got out somewhere last year and the WTA included it at the end of the year in the calendar on their website. It was from the start an amazing reason to wait for the Summer. So here I was, barely 2 months and a week since I left the tennis stadium in Bucharest, back at the BNR Arena enjoying some really beautiful evenings full of tennis. It was bliss.

The matches started late in the afternoon so by the time I got out of work and reached the tennis site there were still 3 matches to go till the day ended so I had to be ready to stay out late. Summer evenings can be beautiful in Bucharest especially if you spend them in the middle of a park watching this amazing sport. The setting of the Tennis Village got me a bit confused because it looked totally different than what I have been used to from the ATP event but after a quick look-around it all became ok. I still love the sound the ball makes when it leaves the racket or when it hits the ground, it is music to my ears. I also love meeting people that I have been seeing constantly every year since 2002. We are a bunch of very faithful tennis fans here. This is not what I can say about the people who came to see Simona Halep play. This more than amazing girl that put Romania back on the tennis map gathers a huge crowd and has thousands of fans but unfortunately half of them have no idea what tennis is all about or how to behave at a tennis match. I apologize for that to all of the people who have felt offended. In time they will learn to change their attitude and understand that tennis is not football.

But going back to the tennis. It was my second time at an all ladies tournament, I’ve been to an ITF event some years ago, even so the beauty of the game is all there. The tension too. Oh my God did we cheer for our girls. And as always there was a bit of drama too: in the ladies doubles semifinal between Elena Bogdan / Alexandra Cadantu and Katarzyna Piter / Olga Savchuk just as well as in the final between Bogdan / Cadantu and Buyukakcay / Knapp our girls were the winners of two very beautiful and exciting tie-breaks. This tension also brought the audience into the match, making the few tennis fans that were there to watch the doubles scream louder than a full stadium, all to give power and faith to the Romanian girls who kept home the first WTA doubles title.

In the singles the first two seeds, Simona Halep and Roberta Vinci, met no real threats until they met each other. The most beautiful and painful match was the semi between Simona and Monica Niculescu, I wish that were the final. Both girls played amazing and because I couldn’t and didn’t want to pick a favorite I just enjoyed the tennis.

So at the end of a tennis week under the warm Summer sun there were so many reasons to be happy and listen to Stand Up (for the Champions) because: we have a WTA tournament in Romania, we have two major tennis events per year, and because game, set, match, championship went to 3 amazing ladies: Simona Halep, Elena Bogdan/Alexandra Cadantu.