The famous Canadian player Eugenie Bouchard, who is a Grand Slam finalist, is going to play Transylvania Open WTA250. This will be her first participation in a Romanian-based tournament. In 2014, she reached the Singles final in Wimbledon after defeating Simona Halep and then lost the trophy to Petra Kvitova. The same year she played another two Grand Slam semifinals, in the Australian Open and Roland Garros. Her career high was WTA No. 5, which made her the first Canadian female to reach such standards.
Genie’s player record counts eight WTA finals and a trophy, but several injuries forced her to stay away from the courts for almost a year. Currently WTA No. 511, she is decided to come back strongly, so she will play qualifiers in Cluj in order to gather as many matches as possible. Her super-aggressive style will surely be one of the attractions of the tournament.
Patrick Ciorcilă, tournament director: ”We are thrilled to welcome one of the most popular players in the circuit. Eugenie Bouchard is coming to Cluj after serious injuries and she is very determined to return to the highest places in WTA rankings, where she surely belongs. Genie reached out to us and we were pleased to offer her a Wild Card for the Qualifying Draw, which thus becomes much more attractive. She will surely make her mark on this year’s edition of our tournament.”
Transylvania Open WTA250 is set to be held between October 8th and 16th, on hard court, in Cluj-Napoca’s BT Arena. More than 30 players from WTA Top 100 have confirmed attending the tournament, including two Grand Slam champions – Barbora Krejcikova and Emma Raducanu – and the Romanians Irina Begu, Ana Bogdan, and Jaqueline Cristian.
After the match interviews will be conducted by the Romanian Grand Slam champion Horia Tecău, who is now the captain of the national Billie Jean King team.
Horia Tecău: ”I am happy to return to Cluj, this time for Transylvania Open, as the interview moderator. Besides offering me the opportunity to watch and support our Romanian players, this event has a special meaning for me, because this is the place of my retirement match, which took place this summer during Sports Festival.“
Transylvania Open WTA250 is back in Cluj after a first successful edition in 2021 when the tournament earned its place in the WTA official schedule. There will be two courts inside BT Arena: Central Court and Court no. 2. The tournament will begin with two days of qualifying matches, which will decide who gets the six free seats in the Main Draw.
The first 21 ranked players, according to WTA, will directly enter TO’s Main Draw. 32 players will entry the Singles Main Draw of Transylvania Open WTA250 and 16 pairs will participate in the Doubles competition. 280 WTA points are at stake. The prize money sums up to $251,750.
