If anyone deserves a thread in the new Romanian Forum, it is this girl. Monica Niculescu is currently ranked 205 in the World but will be very close to her career high of 188 when the rankings after Wimbledon come out. She is not yet 20 years old and so she still has plenty of time to get that ranking up and become a fixture within the top 100.
Personally I for one hope very much that she does. Monica is an exceptional unique talent in the tennis world as anyone who has seen will attest. Almost certainly she has the most unusual game with the top 200 (okay she 205 right now but I'm quite sure she won't be out the top 200 again for a very long time).
Describing her playing style is not easy but I will try. Both her forehand and backhand are played sometimes with one hand and sometimes with two. When she hits with two hands it usually means she is going for more pace whereas when she hits with one hand it usually means she going for an offpace shot of some kind often with underspin. She hits some very strange slices that I really couldn't begin to describe. She is also an exceptional volleyer with amazing improvisational skills and has great touch on dropshots and a nice lob. Quite simply she has so many shots at her disposal that one never knows what is coming next. It must be very hard indeed to get any sort of rhythm against her. This is just one attempt to describe the strange unusual play of Monica Niculescu but it would certainly be fun to read other descriptions of her game within this thread.
Monica is a player who should have the support of everyone who loves Women's tennis but gets tired of loads of women with the same style just wacking the ball back to each other as hard as they can. For fans who love slice and touch shots, who prefer the artistry of Fabrice Santoro to the ball bashing of most of the modern game, Monica Niculescu is the girl for you.
Lets support her in this thread, because tennis will be so much richer with someone with her unique and special skills in the mix.
Oh but she choked, she choked hard :lol: They both did :lol:
The last few games, and the tiebreak in particular were beyond comical... I mean I could understand Monica being overwhelmed by the pressure and going soft.... but wtf kind of reason had Hercog, she was even more tense!! she turned into a massive pusher at the end :lol: :lol:
Her photos are always so crazy... she's all over the place, total mess :lol: :lol:
Halep looked unbeatable yesterday. I'm sure that Monica wants to be a good friend and send Simona early in that vacation she desperately needs, but it's a bad matchup for her. The positive thing, she's such a big underdog that there should be no pressure, she's got nothing to loose... Enjoy yourself Monica and do your magic
*1-2 second set... starting to be a bad match. Halep can't hit a winner and doesn't even try anymore, just pushes through the middle... and Moni is UE-ing left and right
*2-3 Moni breaks with a lot of help from Halep
*4-3 Another break for Monica... Halep is just bad now
For sure... greatest week ever actually :lol: Well, Halep was very passive but you know, even on a bad day she doesn't give you many free points. Too bad Monica couldn't keep her UE's in check today, but she got so tight at times... really blew a big chance in the third
Honestly, very few players wouldn't have been able to finish Halep off in the third today :lol: :lol: Poor girl was sooo drained, really looking down and out