The organisers of the Transylvania Open tennis tournament announced on Wednesday, in a press release sent to AGERPRES, that they have a definitive licence for the WTA 250 tennis tournament in Cluj, which will be held annually in early February.

"The Transylvania Open WTA 250, the tennis tournament in Cluj-Napoca, named the best tournament in the world in its category two years in a row, now has its place clearly established in the WTA circuit. The organisers have managed to acquire a licence that will ensure the continuity of the event. The tennis tournament which had its first three editions held in October, and the most recent in February, will now take place at the beginning of the season. The next edition will be held on 1-9 February 2025," the press release said.

Patrick Ciorcila, director of the Transylvania Open, said that the new position of the tournament in the WTA calendar is much more advantageous.

"It is with great joy that we officially announce that the Transylvania Open now has a secure future. We have shown that if we work for our dreams we can achieve almost anything. This is a team that does this out of a passion that is out of this world. We had a dream: to stop renting licences, but to have our own licence and keep this tournament, for life, at home. And now we've done it. The place in the WTA calendar will now be in February, a much more advantageous position than at the end of the season. From here on we can build quietly and focus strictly on the quality of the event," Ciorcila said.

The fourth edition of the Transylvania Open took place in the BTarena multi-purpose hall in Cluj-Napoca, on 3-11 February 2024. The matches were played indoors, on hard courts, on the two tennis courts. In total, 32 players competed in singles matches and 16 teams in doubles, for 250 WTA points and prizes worth USD 267,082.

This year's edition of the Transylvania Open WTA 250 meant 9 days of tennis, two of which were qualifiers, with matches played on the two tennis courts set up at BTarena. The players had at their disposal two additional training courts. The two courts required special logistical work to separate the multi-purpose hall by installing 3,000 square metres of sound-absorbing and fireproof curtains. A team of almost 1,000 people worked on the organisation of the tournament and the budget amounted to 1.5 million euros.

The winner of this year's big trophy was Karolina Pliskova, former world number one, who defeated Ana Bogdan, the number 8 seed of the competition, 6-4, 6-3, in the final. Ana Bogdan was the third Romanian to have reached the final of the Cluj tournament, after Simona Halep (2021) and Gabriela Ruse (2023), but neither has managed to win so far. AGERPRES (RO - author: Marius Tone, editor: Mihai Tenea; EN - author: Adina Panaitescu, editor: Cristina Zaharia)