SHOCK AT WIMBLEDON! Ruse remains the only hope in doubles, after Begu and Cristian took 6-1, 6-1! Cîrstea withdrew like a scaredy-cat!

Bro, grab the remote and look for the Wimbledon matches, because it was a black day for Romanian tennis! On Friday, July 3, all our girls played doubles, but only one came out with a clean face. Well, not exactly: Sorana Cîrstea withdrew out of fear, like she was Mioara seeing the electricity bill. Let's take it one by one, so you can see what happened!

Gabriela Ruse, the 28-year-old girl, ranked 71st in WTA, paired up with Ukrainian Marta Kostyuk, ranked 13th, and they struck gold! They beat the number 5 seeds, Nicole Melichar-Martinez from the USA and Erin Routliffe from New Zealand, 6-3, 6-4, in 1 hour and 23 minutes. Wait, no joke: they gave it to them nicely, ice cold! Now, in the second round, they face Indonesians Aldila Sutjiadi and Janice Tjen, who beat Harriet Dart and Maia Lumsden with the same score. Let's see if she keeps it up, because I already invested a beer at Fane's on the terrace.

But wait till you hear what happened with Begu and Cristian! Irina Begu, 35, ranked 173rd, and Jaqueline Cristian, 28, ranked 37th, walked onto the court and left faster than Brian makes a TikTok. The number 4 seeds, Elise Mertens from Belgium and Shuai Zhang from China, gave them 6-1, 6-1, in just 53 minutes. Bro, I take longer to order a shawarma! That's the tennis we play in Berceni park with the boys, but at least we win a game sometimes. Shame, girls, shame!

And now, the funny part: Sorana Cîrstea, who is our only hope in singles, withdrew from doubles at the last minute. She was supposed to play alongside Anna Kalinskaya from Russia against the Ukrainian pair Anhelina Kalinina and Dayana Yastremska, but she said no. In their place, Laura Pigossi from Brazil and Simona Waltert from Switzerland entered the main draw. Hey, Sorana, what happened? Scared of war? Or did you think it's better to rest for singles? Anyway, in singles, she's the last Mohican: she beat Sara Bejlek and Kimberly Birrell, and now she faces Linda Nosková, a 21-year-old Czech, ranked 12th, who crushed Ella Seidel and Camila Osorio. If she beats her too, we'll have a barbecue at Fane's! If not, at least we saw Ruse giving it her all.

That's Romanian tennis: you wait for a miracle, and most of the time you get ripped off. But at least we have someone to be proud of: Ruse and Kostyuk play like clockwork, maybe they'll bring home a trophy. I say we watch on Saturday, maybe something will come out of it. If not, at least we had something to talk about on the terrace with the boys.