Begu and Bogdan, Queens in Bucharest

[22 July 2011]

Irina Begu and Elena Bogdan broke loose towards the end of a fairytale final, in which they went from agony to ecstasy, in order to triumph, by winning 6-7/1, 7-6/4, 16-14 against the doubles pair Maria-Elena Camerin (Italy)/ Ipek Senoglu (Turkey).

In the most intense minutes of the super tie-break, the spectators on the central arena of the Herastrau Tennis Academy quickly went from one mood to another. As was the case in the semifinals, Begu and Bogdan were one point away from losing. It happened three times, the Romanian double managing to even the score each time, on their serve. In their own turn, they postponed the ending until transforming the forth chance they had into a winner. “All the time, I tried not to think about the score, not to think that it was match point and to just play my best tennis in the difficult times, and I think this pulled us up. Today, I served really well in the key moments. We stayed very focused and simply didn’t think that if we were to lose in those moments we would have missed the opportunity to win the final”, declared Elena Bogdan.

The defeat wasn’t so bitter for the Turkish veteran Ipek Senoglu. “Last time I was in Bucharest 10 years ago, and I didn’t like it then, but this time it was a great pleasure for me to be here. Congratulations to the girls for their victory, best of luck to Irina for tomorrow’s singles final and I hope that next year you’ll turn this tournament in a WTA one.”

The 2011 BCR Open Romania title brings Irina Begu and Elena Bogdan 150 point each in the WTA Ranking, and also a shared cheque of $ 5.573.

Text and picture: BCR Open

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