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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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#1,835 ·
Re: The Amazing and Remarkable Monica Niculescu

Monica's on the Q-list for Paris Indoors. :) She has 2nd round MD points to defend (lost to Kerber).
 
#1,844 ·
Re: The Amazing and Remarkable Monica Niculescu

After all, she just traveled from Australia to Europe and has to adapt to a completely different climate, area and surface.

Let's hope she qualifies and gets drawn into the 1st quarter of the MD.
 
#1,847 ·
Re: The Amazing and Remarkable Monica Niculescu

Monica is usually doing very well on fast surfaces. Look at Luxembourg which is the fastest on the tour. On the other hand she sucks badly on clay.

Actually all her strengths play into that. Her serve is not that attackable, while she is still a great return player to get many of the opponent's serve back in play.
However, her biggest strength is her unpredictability in the rallies there. She can suck up her opponent's pace the way she wants or simply redirect it, create the rallies faster or slower herself, breaking her opponent's rhythm. Many girls have no clue how to deal with that and overhit or become a victime of their own poor footwork.

On the other hand many of her shots just beg to be put away on clay. She can easily be outplayed there, because her opponent has enough time to play the right shot, while they don't get the time to do so on faster surfaces.
 
#1,851 · (Edited)
Re: The Amazing and Remarkable Monica Niculescu

Monica is usually doing very well on fast surfaces. Look at Luxembourg which is the fastest on the tour. On the other hand she sucks badly on clay.

Actually all her strengths play into that. Her serve is not that attackable, while she is still a great return player to get many of the opponent's serve back in play.
However, her biggest strength is her unpredictability in the rallies there. She can suck up her opponent's pace the way she wants or simply redirect it, create the rallies faster or slower herself, breaking her opponent's rhythm. Many girls have no clue how to deal with that and overhit or become a victime of their own poor footwork.

On the other hand many of her shots just beg to be put away on clay. She can easily be outplayed there, because her opponent has enough time to play the right shot, while they don't get the time to do so on faster surfaces.
Yup. Indoors is definately where Monica is most dangerous and the way this event is going I'm expecting good things this week. The main draw spots for the qualifiers look pretty condusive to Monica having good week.

Funnily enough the spot I'm hoping Monica gets is the one in the 4th quarter. Monica has a good record against Pironkova and matches up well against her. And then in the 2nd round Monica would face Kvitova. Monica with four matches on the Paris surface against a slumping Kvitova playing her 1st would, I think, be a wonderful opportunity for Monica to get a really big win here. Honestly, I fancy Monica's chances against Kvitova much more than I do against Errani. Sara, has the discipline and variety of shot so that I doubt Monica would be able to do much to trouble her. Niculescu v Errani looks to me a tough match for Monica even indoors. On the other hand, I can see Monica totally discombobulating Petra. Yeah, that could be a lot of fun indeed. :haha:

Oh, the one player I want Monica to avoid in the 1st round is Monica Puig. That girl is dangerous and the last thing I want to see is the q v q spot in the lineup becoming a Monica v Monica spot.
 
#1,856 ·
Re: The Amazing and Remarkable Monica Niculescu

Well Monica has been put in the draw against Carla Suarez Navarro. Not a bad 1st round match at all as Carla isn't that good indoors. Pretty confident Monica can win this. But then I would have been pretty confident Monica would have won her 1st match whereever she got placed to be honest.

2nd round match against Klara Zakopalova will be tough though. Klara beat Monica pretty easily in Shenzhen so hopefully this match will be an improvement on that one from Monica. The surface does give Monica a better chance this time but she will still definately be the underdog for that one.
 
#1,861 ·
Re: The Amazing and Remarkable Monica Niculescu

That was the worst possible placement and she got it, yay :facepalm:
Totally Agree.

In order of difficulty for Monica I would rate them Zakopalova the toughest, then Errani and then Kvitova the easiest. Mostly because of their form and how they would likely match up against Monica. Would have much prefered Monica got Petra in the 2nd round but that's life. :shrug:

Still, at least Monica has a decent 1st round.
 
#1,858 ·
Re: The Amazing and Remarkable Monica Niculescu

She really has to beat CSN on indoor courts. Not to mention that Monica already has some matches under her belt while Carla just flew over to Europe.

And then it will depend on how much fucks Klara will give this time.
 
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