Irina Bara did not manage to secure a spot in the singles draw at the 2023 Transylvania Open, but she is teaming up with Jaqueline Cristian for the doubles event. She would love to win her second doubles title in Cluj, following her 2021 victory with Gorgodze.
“I missed out on the singles draw, and I couldn’t make it to the qualifiers because I was involved in another tournament. I also had some bad luck; I understand that Pavlyuchenkova withdrew just after the deadline,” Irina told us. “If Pavlyuchenkova had withdrawn earlier, I could have entered. These things happen in tennis. So, I’m only playing doubles. On Saturday, I finished a tournament in Italy, played for three hours, lost, and went straight to the airport. I had two flights and arrived here around 2 AM. I would have liked more time for this tournament, but that’s how it turned out, that was the schedule. I had no control over it.”
Irina hasn’t played doubles too frequently in recent times. “In ITF tournaments, it’s tough to play both singles and doubles. If I play two to three hours of singles and still have doubles every day, I can’t manage it. I’ll do that at WTA events or larger tournaments. At ITF events, I no longer play both singles and doubles. But here, being in Romania, I felt it would be a shame not to come. Since I couldn’t make it in singles, I couldn’t withdraw from doubles.
I won the tournament in 2021, so I did my duty (laughs).
I would love to have a good performance here. I haven’t played doubles with Jacqueline for a long time; I’m sure it’s been at least five years. But I think we could play well together. The tournament is in Romania, and the team consists of two Romanians, which I find beautiful. Let’s see how we perform on the court.”
