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The Amazing and Remarkable Monica Niculescu (Cheering Thread)

264K views 5K replies 124 participants last post by  Michael! 
#1 · (Edited)
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. :worship:
 
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#2 ·
Re: The Amazing and Remarkable Monica Niculescu

I saw her play Maria Kirilenko. Her technique is very unique and it must've been a :confused: match for Kirilenko and everyone who's played her. But all in all, her game was very fun to watch.

I think her serve needs to improve to go higher but besides that, I'm sure her skills may trouble the top players. I'm glad to see that alot of these Romanian girls aren't ballbashers. :angel:

Good luck. Monica! :wavey:
 
#6 ·
Re: The Amazing and Remarkable Monica Niculescu

She is one of my fav players right now as well. :) :)
Cool :yeah:

Anyone has a vid of Monica playing? really curious about her game
I wish. I really do. :worship:

Anyway Monica has an important tournament this week in that she is the defending champion. It is a $25,000 Challenger and it is in Darmstadt. The draw doesn't seem to be out yet but it looks like she should be seeded in the top 4.

Good luck Monica. :bounce:
 
#5 ·
Re: The Amazing and Remarkable Monica Niculescu

Anyone has a vid of Monica playing? really curious about her game
 
#8 ·
Re: The Amazing and Remarkable Monica Niculescu

It looks like Monica is starting to really put her game together. Today she won the ITF in Turkey, and she won it in style too. Monica won all five of her matches in straight sets and lost only 19 games over the 10 sets. This is also her 2nd final in her last 3 events.

Next year I really do expect her to break through to the top 100 and possibly the top 50. And the top 100 will be so much richer with her original and unorthodox game in the mix. :bounce:
 
#10 ·
Re: The Amazing and Remarkable Monica Niculescu

It's great to see her playing well. She's such a unique player and others deserve to see that. :yeah:



I loved it when Kirilenko described her as female Santoro. :hearts:
Masha is spot on. And can there be a better player to be compared to than Fabrice. I sure can't think of any. And Monica is certainly worthy of the comparison.
 
#11 ·
Re: The Amazing and Remarkable Monica Niculescu

Still havnt got a chance to see her unique game. Anyone has any clips ? Thanks
 
#13 ·
Re: The Amazing and Remarkable Monica Niculescu

WOW!!! :D How about that then? :rocker:

Monica has just won her 2nd ITF in a row. Two weeks ago she lost only 19 games in 5 matches on indoor hard in Istanbul. Today she proved she can do exactly the same thing on outdoor hard, losing just 19 games in 5 matches in Port Pirie, Australia. :bigclap:

Because the manner of the victories has been so consistantly impressive I thought it would be nice just to list the entire winning streak right here as that says more than words really can as to how well this girl is playing.

Istanbul, Oct 23 1R (8)Monica Niculescu (ROU) v (WC)Melis Sezer (TUR) 60 61 :clap2:
Istanbul, Oct 24 2R (8)Monica Niculescu (ROU) v (Q)Tinatin Kavlashvili (GEO) 61 63 :dance:
Istanbul, Oct 26 QF (8)Monica Niculescu (ROU) v Georgie Stoop (GBR) 62 64 :yippee:
Istanbul, Oct 27 SF (8)Monica Niculescu (ROU) v (2)Katie O'Brien (GBR) 64 62 :bowdown:
Istanbul, Oct 28 F (8)Monica Niculescu (ROU) d. Oxana Lyubtsova (UKR) 62 60 :bounce: :bigclap: :rocker:

Port Pirie, Nov 7 1R (4)Monica Niculescu (ROU) def. (Q)Lauren Breadmore (AUS) 64 62 :D
Port Pirie, Nov 8 2R (4)Monica Niculescu (ROU) def. Georgie Stoop (GBR) 63 62 :banana:
Port Pirie, Nov 9 QF (4)Monica Niculescu (ROU) def. (Q)Aleksandra Srndovic (SWE) 61 60 :bowdown:
Port Pirie, Nov 10 SF (4)Monica Niculescu (ROU) def. Nicole Thyssen (NED) 63 61 :worship:
Port Pirie, Nov 11 F (4)Monica Niculescu (ROU) def. I-Hsuan Hwang (TPE) 61 62 :yippee: :clap2: :rocker2:

Pretty impressive, I'd say.

The ITF tour must be very difficult for all the players, the costs are very high, the prize money very low. Matches are poorly attended. No one wants to be there, everyone is trying to escape onto the main tour. And it is not easy, everyone is playing for their life. But the best way to escape and get on to the riches and excitement of the main WTA tour is simply to win all your matches. This is obviously the route Monica has chosen to take. :yeah:
 
#19 ·
Re: The Amazing and Remarkable Monica Niculescu

That serve is horrid!! Interesting groundstrokes though. More parts to come Nouf?
 
#21 ·
Re: The Amazing and Remarkable Monica Niculescu

I recently saw a video of Gabriela Niculescu on youtube. I believe she's Monica's older sister. Seems to play a regular game as compared to Monica, anyone knows how good her sister actually was?
 
#24 ·
Re: The Amazing and Remarkable Monica Niculescu

Gabriela was never as good as Monica and is now in the States playing college tennis.
yea. The youtube video I saw showed her practising tons of groundstrokes but she didn't do those slices that Monica does. Anyway, from the video, it seems that Gabriela's serve is slightly better than Monica. Not sure if I can find the link, but I'd post it up if I do :)
 
#25 ·
Re: The Amazing and Remarkable Monica Niculescu

Just regarding Monica's serve, when I last saw Monica play it was at Roehampton in the qualifying to Wimbledon. At that time Monica was actually making some very decent serves but yes she was also making some quite poor serves too. It was missing quite a bit and sometimes lacked pace. But it wasn't all bad. She hit a few aces as well.

The thing is looking at Monica's results over the past few weeks, not just the fact she is winning almost every match she is playing but even more the manner in which she is dismissing her opponents with such ease, I can't help but think all this talk about her having a weak serve could very well be something that has been sorted out over the last few months. I really don't think we would be seeing the scores she is producing if she was serving at the level shown in that otherwise highly entertaining video with Monica playing Masha. If she is still serving at that level then all I can say is the rest of her game must be scarily good right now. Either way, she appears to be on the fastlane to the top 100 and it doesn't look like she is stopping for traffic lights either.
 
#26 ·
Re: The Amazing and Remarkable Monica Niculescu

Monica advanced to final in Mount Gambier , after she beat in semifinal : Niculescu vs. CHUANG, Chia-Jung (TPE) 6-0 6-2
In final she play with LEE, Ye-Ra (KOR) 8 !
GOOD LUCK MONICA !!!
 
#27 ·
Re: The Amazing and Remarkable Monica Niculescu

Monica has won yet another ITF. In the final she lost only four games, winning 6-3 6-1 over yet another discombobulated opponent. :lol:

I named this thread "The Amazing and Remarkable Monica Niculescu", and Monica continues to justify the praise within that title. There are so many stats one could provide right now that reflect just how well she is playing but next year we will all get to see for ourselves as she continues to rise up the rankings and starts to compete against the world's best players on our TV's and at our favorite local tennis tournaments. :yeah:

Next year is going to rock. :rocker:
 
#29 ·
Re: The Amazing and Remarkable Monica Niculescu

I've been an on and off fan of Monica since 2004

Shes very highly regarded by my favourite player Marina Erakovic, they played alot of doubles together and you they would often hang out at parties together.
 
#31 ·
Re: The Amazing and Remarkable Monica Niculescu

GOD JOB
MONICA NICULESCU
:wavey:
:worship:
 
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