DIPLOMACY/SPORTS New ambassadors; Estonian Freedom Day; Római Tennis Academy

diplomacy - sports

NEW AMBASSADORS

Four new ambassadors accredited to Hungary presented their credentials to Hungarian President János Áder at the Sándor Palace in the Buda Castle in July (pictured clockwise from top left): Modupe Enitan Irele of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Manuel Jacoangeli of the Italian Republic, Thi Bich Thao Nguyen of the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam and Dr. Marjan Cencen of the Republic of Slovenia.

PUTINTSEVA WINS HUNGARIAN GRAND PRIX

ESTONIAN EMBASSY CELEBRATES VICTORY DAY

Attended by dozens of fellow ambassadors and other guests, the event was the first major diplomatic reception in Hungary after the pandemic lockdown came into force in March 2020. Victory Day has been celebrated since 1934 and marks the victory of Estonia and neighboring Latvia in the Battle of Cēsis against the Baltische Landeswehr on June 23, 1919. As Ambassador Karelsohn pointed out in her speech, this year also marks 100 years of diplomatic relations between Estonia and Hungary. Hungary recognized the Republic of Estonia de jure on February 24, 1921, marking the start of diplomatic relations between Estonia and Hungary.

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S TENNIS TOURNAMENT RETURNS TO THE RÓMAI TENNIS ACADEMY AFTER EIGHT YEARS IN ‘EXILE’ Top seed Yulia Putintseva of Kazakhstan won the singles title at the USD 235,000 WTA Hungarian Grand Prix women's clay court tennis tournament in Budapest. Hungary’s Fanny Stollár – with her Romanian partner – is the winner of the doubles event.

The Római Tennis Academy in Budapest was the venue of an international tournament between 1996 and 2013 as part of the series organized by the Florida-based Women’s Tennis Association (WTA). For economic and administrative reasons, Jenő Márky, the owner of this WTA sanction, had to organize the event outside the country (in the Romanian capital, Bucharest) for the coming years. By 2021, he managed to bring the tournament back to the Római Tennis Academy he owns.

In two easy sets

26-year-old Kazakh Putintseva, who was born in Moscow and lives in Florida, is ranked 42nd in the world, was the clear favorite to win the final at the Asbóth József Stadium at the Római Tennis Academy. Her only previous WTA trophy was won in 2019 in Nuremberg, also on clay. Her 24-year-old Ukrainian opponent, Anhelina Kalinina who is career-high 95th in the WTA rankings, had her greatest achievement so far this year by qualifying for the second round of Roland Garros by beating three-time Grand Slam champion Angelique Kerber of Germany. Putintseva – who changed citizenship from Russian to Kazakh in 2012 – went up 3:0 early in the first set by breaking her opponent’s service game twice. Kalinina managed to produce a rebreak but Putintseva, who has three Grand Slam quarter-final titles to her name, took the first set after three quarters of an hour. In the second, Kalinina made a lot of errors, losing games after games and barely hitting the court with her strokes, losing the set 0-6. The unexpectedly one-sided final lasted 1 hour 10 minutes. Yulia Putintseva receives USD 29,200 and 280 WTA points for the second WTA trophy of her career.

Hungarian-Romanian victory

In the doubles final, Hungary’s Fanny Stollár and Romania’s Mihaela Buzarnescu defeated Spain’s Aliona Bolsova and Tamara Korpatsch of Germany in two straight sets. The first, 35-minute set was dominated by service breaks as the Hungarian-Romanian duo lost their service game three times, while the Spanish-German pair did that four times and thus the latter lost the first set 4-6. Bolsova and Korpatsch were not in control of the second set, either and as a result, the HungarianRomanian duo quickly took a 3-0 lead. Their opponents produced a re-break, however, after 3:1, Stollár and Buzarnescu kept their break advantage throughout the set to take the Hungarian Grand Prix 2021 championship title. For Stollár, who did not make it to the singles main draw from the qualifiers, it was her fifth WTA doubles final and her second tournament victory.