The Romanian tennis players Simona Halep, Ana Bogdan, Gabriela Ruse and Jaqueline Cristian received wild cards from the organizers of the Transylvania Open WTA 250 tournament, they will enter directly into the main draw of the competition in Cluj-Napoca.
“Wild Cards for Romanian players, at the Transylvania Open WTA 250. The organizers announce the eight official wild cards offered for this year’s edition, which will take place between February 1 and 9, 2025, at the BTarena in Cluj-Napoca.
“Simo”, ranked 870 WTA
On the main singles draw, four wild cards were awarded, and the chosen players make Romania have a strong presence, with six renowned players in the tournament”, it is mentioned in a statement sent by the Cluj-Napoca team.
Simona Halep, former world leader, skipped the Australian Open citing an injury. She returns to Cluj for the first time after participating in the inaugural edition in 2021, organized without spectators.
The former Roland Garros 2018 and Wimbledon 2019 champion is ranked 870th in the WTA and would not have been able to perform even in the qualifiers in Cluj, without the support of the organizers.
Two other wild cards were awarded to players Ana Bogdan and Elena-Gabriela Ruse, finalists at the Transylvania Open in previous editions, who were initially entered in the qualifiers and now promoted directly to the main draw. By regulation, the fourth wild card is reserved for a player in the top 30, but if it is not requested, it is awarded to the first player below the top 21 line on the main draw, which this year is Jaqueline Cristian.
Cîrstea and Begu are ranked for the main draw
With these new entries, who join Sorana Cîrstea and Irina Begu, qualified directly based on the world ranking, Romania will have a total of six players in the main draw of Transylvania Open 2025.
In the qualifiers, the organizers offered four wild cards to the young Romanian players Miriam Bulgaru, Ilinca Amariei, Georgia Crăciun and Briana Szabo, thus giving them the opportunity to compete for a place on the main draw.
The qualifications will take place over two days, February 1 and 2, and public access to the qualification matches is free and based on a zero-value ticket, which can be downloaded from the entertix.ro platform or can be requested at ticket office at the BTarena, before the matches, within the limit of available seats.
The draw for the main draw will take place on Saturday 1 February. Fans will have the opportunity to see all the players in the main draw, as well as the most matches in two days of the tournament: February 3 – 6 singles and 3 doubles matches, and February 4 – 8 singles and 2 doubles matches.
The finals of the tournament will take place on Sunday, February 9. The doubles test will start at 14:30, and the singles final no earlier than 17:00.
