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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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#2,436 ·
Re: The Amazing and Remarkable Monica Niculescu

Bad for Monica, very good for my TT.


Monica's game is as ineffective on the dirt as Agatha's. Both players' shots just die out there, but not in a positive way. Even a girl as bad a mover as Robson gets enough time to kill those puffballs midway. It's actually pretty funny that a great match-up can turn into a complete different one on another surface despite court homogenization.
 
#2,437 ·
Re: The Amazing and Remarkable Monica Niculescu

I never know what to think about Peng. I have seen her play a few times and she was kinda impressive. I know it would be a tough one. :hug: At least there was a win in doubles.
 
#2,452 ·
Re: The Amazing and Remarkable Monica Niculescu

Reminds me of the Vesnina match from Oeiras.

She is completely hopeless on clay. I watched parts of her match against Erakovic and found out that it's actually more a matter of the higher bounce than the actual slowness of the surface.

When I see her playing in Luxemboug, her game looks unplayable how she is digging out these balls, redirecting the pace with ease, going to the net, not giving her opponent any rhythm and all that is happening so fast that her opponent really has no clue what is going on.

On clay, he surprise effect only holds for 15 minutes. Her serve begs to be put away, her drop shots are dropping far too long, her slice loses all its bite and as she doesn't hit with any topspin to open up the court, nor making use of any angles, it's basically impossible for her to finish a neutral rally with a winner on her own.
Most rallies see her in the defensive from the 1st shot and although she is still retrieving exceptionally well, it's like her opponent is pushing her far and farer behind the baseline to finish most of them with an easy put away sooner or later.
 
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