Simona Halep, Ana Bogdan, Gabriela Ruse, and Jaqueline Cristian enter the main draw
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. Four wild cards have been awarded on the main draw of singles, and the chosen players give Romania a strong presence, with six renowned players in the tournament.
Simona Halep, one of the most beloved figures in Romanian tennis and a former world leader, returns to Cluj for the first time in front of the public, after participating in the inaugural edition of 2021, organized without spectators. In previous editions, two other wild cards were awarded to players Ana Bogdan and Elena-Gabriela Ruse, finalists at the Transylvania Open, who were initially entered in the qualifications and are now promoted directly to the main draw. By regulation, the fourth wild card is reserved for a player in the top 30, but if not requested, it is awarded to the first player below the top 21 on the main draw, which this year is Jaqueline Cristian. With these new entries, who join Sorana Cîrstea and Irina-Camelia Begu, who qualified directly based on their world rankings, Romania will have six players in the main draw of the Transylvania Open 2025.
In the qualifiers, the organizers offered four wild cards to young Romanian players Miriam Bulgaru, Ilinca Amariei, Georgia Crăciun, and Briana Szabo, allowing them to compete for a place in the main draw. The qualifiers will take place over two days, February 1 and 2, 2025, and public access to the qualifiers is free and is based on a 0-value ticket, which can be downloaded from the entertix.ro platform or requested at the BTarena ticket office, before the matches, subject to availability.
Patrick Ciorcilă, Director of the Transylvania Open WTA 250: “We are delighted that, through these wild cards, we can offer Romanian players the opportunity to perform on one of the most important stages of international tennis. This year, Romania will have an impressive representation at the Transylvania Open, with six players in the main draw and four more in the qualifiers. It is a sign of our firm commitment to supporting Romanian tennis and creating opportunities for our athletes to show their talent in front of their home audience. The atmosphere in the BTarena will be electrifying, and fans will have the opportunity to experience unforgettable moments.”
The draw for the main draw will take place on Saturday, February 1. Fans will have the opportunity to see all the players on the main draw, as well as most of the matches over two days of the tournament: February 3 – 6 singles and 3 doubles matches, and February 4 – 8 singles and 2 doubles matches. The tournament finals will take place on Sunday, February 9. The doubles event will start at 2:30 PM, and the singles final no earlier than 5:00 PM.
A novelty for the 2025 edition is the introduction of Half-Day tickets, valid for evening sessions, from Monday to Thursday, starting at 5:00 PM. For the final stages – quarterfinals, semifinals and final – only Full-Day tickets will be available, with prices reaching 145 lei for the final on February 9. Tickets can be purchased online at entertix.ro.
The fifth edition of the largest tennis tournament in Romania will take place in the multi-purpose hall BTarena in Cluj-Napoca. The matches are played indoors, on hard courts, on the two tennis courts. In total, 32 players compete in singles matches, and 16 teams in doubles, for 250 WTA points and prizes worth $275,094.
About Transylvania Open WTA 250
Transylvania Open is organized by the same team that makes the events: Sports Festival, the largest multi-sport event in Romania, Urban Playfield, and Biletul de Sânâtate. The tournament taking place in Cluj-Napoca is the most important women’s tennis competition in Romania and is part of the WTA 250 category. The event brings together top players from around the world for a week of intense competition in the BT Arena in Cluj-Napoca and has been voted by players, two consecutive years (2022, 2023), as the best tournament in the world in the WTA 250 category! With a constant increase in popularity, the Transylvania Open WTA 250 continues to promote women’s tennis in Romania and the world.
