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.
It basically means that she is living most of opponents' unforced errors and with quite some margin, but we all know how she is capable of that - her defensive skills and variety surely has something to do with that.
Thus said, I have no clue why Cirstea is ranked so high in these charts.
It's based on 5 events so it's not a very accurate prospective...if she's played at least one bbb in each and those were all in a bad day, then the stat is easily explained.
Well, it's no secret Monica is living from her opponents' UEs and I don't consider this a bad thing at all, as she is really doing some imaginative and tricky stuff to do so and not only running everything down.
I only don't like reducing Monica to her defensive skills, because she surely can do more than that.
Well, it's no secret Monica is living from her opponents' UEs and I don't consider this a bad thing at all, as she is really doing some imaginative and tricky stuff to do so and not only running everything down.
I only don't like reducing Monica to her defensive skills, because she surely can do more than that.
Exactly. This is very important. I am also not surprised to see Monica leading this list. But what needs to be remembered is that there is a reason players make a lot of errors against her. And it isn't just that she keeps the ball in play. A lot of defensive players do that. In fact there are numerous players on the tour who make fewer errors than Monica and are at least as good at keeping the ball in play.
What makes Monica tough is that her forehand underspin slice is a shot that generates a way above average ratio of errors against most players. Indeed against some players that ratio is so big it is practically off the chart. And hitting a slice with that much underspin requires at least as much skill as blasting a groundie down the line at 100 mph. But when the stats get written up the points Monica wins with her underspin slice go down as unforced errors by her opponent while the powerhitting shots of another player go down as winners. But in truth both shots won the player their points, just in a different manner.
:lol: Actually, undefeated on clay since last year's RG :lol:
I really hope she has a good clay season. This girls deserves it and she can do it. She was a semifinalist in Estoril two years ago, she can do it again!