Tennis: Eight Romanian tennis players to play in doubles event at Roland Garros

Not less than eight Romanian tennis players are registered for the double event of the 2020 French Open tennis tournament, at Roland Garros, which kicked off on Sunday in Paris, namely Raluca Olaru, Monica Niculescu, Irina Begu, Andreea Mitu, Irina Bara, Ana Bogdan, Patricia Tig and Sorana Cirstea.

Begu and Olaru, who will make a pair together, will meet very tough opponents in the first round, Elise Mertens (Belgium) and Arina Sabalenka (Belarus), who played the semifinal at the same tournament's double event in 2019.

Andreea Mitu and Patricia Tig, another Romanian pair, will play against Madison Brengle (US) and Yana Sizikova (Russia), in the first round.

In exchange, Monica Niculescu and Irina Bara will play against each other. Niculescu will team up with Japanese Misaki Doi, while Bara will play side by side with Hungarian Fanny Stollar.

Ana Bogdan will make a team with Swedish Rebecca Peterson, to meet Marie Bouzkova (the Czech Republic) and Arantxa Rus (The Netherlands), in the first round of the same tournament.

Sorana Cirstea will join Spanish Sara Sorribes Tormo, recently defeated by Simona Halep in the singles event, 6-4, 6-0. Cirstea and Sorribes Tormo will play against Alison Riske (US) and Alija Tomljanovic (Australia) in the first round of the Roland Garros doubles competition.

In men's doubles, Horia Tecau and his partner Jean-Julien Rojer, who played the quarterfinals of the same tournament last year, and are seeded 12th for this year's event, will meet the pair Cristian Garin (Chile)/Pedro Martinez (Spain) in the first round.