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.
i love Monica but last week she was on the verge of crying and considering to possibly end her season because of the injuries and now she's breezing through a MM while being injured still... what logic is this?
Wickulescu Fingers crossed for a second WTA title of 2016 for Monica tonight
The match is also recorded on tennischanneleverywhere, for those who want to see it.
Monica's top-spin forehand on MP
But last week she said she felt more or less ok, basically without pain. As I understood it she was almost in tears looking back at the previous weeks where her back was killing her and at one point she wasn't even sure if she'll be able to play tennis again But also, yeah... the field there isn't the strongest one. Injured Monica is still possibly the best player in the draw.
So happy she had some good matched in Washington, even if just in dubs. Great time to win a WTA title Off to Canada now.... hopefully without the back pains
Rogers Cup - Montreal
Main Draw
(4)Agnieszka Radwanska bye Monica Niculescu v Jelena Ostapenko
Q v Q
Yulia Putintseva v (16)Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova
Doubles Draw
(5)Babos/Safarova v Bondarenko/Savchuk
(wc)Halep/Niculescu v Dabrowski/Kudryavtseva
Muguruza/Suarez Navarro v Groenefeld/Peschke
(2)Garcia/Mladenovic bye
Here's the full match between Monica Niculescu / Yanina Wickmayer and Shuko Aoyama / Risa Ozaki from the doubles final of Citi Open Washington, which very few were able to see Live. Enjoy !
*quality is not super-great. includes trophy ceremony with interviews and such.
3-6 7-5 6-1 , from 3-6 0-3* and 3-6 4-5*, 15-30 . . We are not worthy .
First time when I turned off a stream when Monica played, out of disappointment , at 6-3 *3-0. It was a shitfest till then.
Came back at 3-3. And wow .
She could have (easily) won in straights in other circumstances, against players like Ostapenko though. Problems over problems (medical) but somehow she wins matches (mostly in doubles though ) .
Not the best match but great fighting from Monica Would have preferred basically anybody in the draw for R2 (except Stosur obviously) but hopefully Monica remembers their last meeting and all the mistakes she did trying to hit through Aga.
Love it when Moni's "slice gone wrong" ends up being an unbelievable winner
Shot of the tournament... shot of the year... exaggerating much?
They make a pretty good team in any case, it was funny how Simona was asking Monica where to stand on the court :lol: I think it's very impressive how Monica has good results with basically anyone she plays with. Only this year where she was injured for a long while and the slams so far were compromised, she has a title with Vania, another title with Wickmayer, a PM semi with Gasparyan, a P5 semi with Begu and now at least a P5 QF with Halep
Klepac and Srebotnik are still in the draw so nothing secured yet. We'll see. Fingers crossed as well .
Coming back to singles, she withdrew some hours ago from Florianopolis. I just hope it's not a clue that she might skip the Olympics where she said she'll most probably go, regardless of Zika.
They made it to the doubles final!
Moni was on fire in the first set, then faded pretty badly in the second.
But at 3-6 in the MTB both Moni and Simona decided to rise to the occasion and took it in pretty epic fashion, winning the last 7 points in a row.
Monica also gave an interview after the dubs QF yesterday, a bit worrying she talked about playing Cinci and didn't mention the Olympics. Just hope she isn't planning on skipping. Not only just for the experience but the way she's been playing, who knows maybe she can pull off an upset in dubs and mixed there. I'm gonna be really sad if she won't play
Monica also gave an interview after the dubs QF yesterday, a bit worrying she talked about playing Cinci and didn't mention the Olympics. Just hope she isn't planning on skipping. Not only just for the experience but the way she's been playing, who knows maybe she can pull off an upset in dubs and mixed there. I'm gonna be really sad if she won't play
That's what I also discovered 20 minutes ago , sustained by the maybe a little earlier than expected withdrawal from Florianopolis, even if it was hard to get there.
Olympics is not a WTA tournament, but still, not mentioning and the Florianopolis thing worry me too .
Lost the final to Makarova/Vesnina Finished the week with another good match but the russians were just very solid. Surprised how close they kept it with Simona running on fumes, not very involved in play and Monica on the other extreme, running around trying to do way to much by herself. Still it was an amazing week, glad they played together, seemed to have a lot of fun out there... and made some great points also, like: https://www.instagram.com/p/BIipnzujnfT/
Horrible decision... I'm really very disappointed.
Yes Monica, go prepare well to bomb out in Cinci qualies... it's clearly more important than a once in a lifetime opportunity to represent your country and be part in the greatest sports competition of the world
I will be very mad if this turns to be true.
Nothing on the main media so there is still a bit of hope.
Monica is the "oldest" of the Rou current generation and slim chances for her to get to Tokyo.
WTF happened since WTA Bucharest where all seems to indicate that she will play ?
I was looking forward for doubles and mixed doubles.
I actually could see Moni sticking around until 2020, but this was a very good set-up for her to do well. Even if Sori agrees to play doubles with Irina, I don't think their playing styles complement one another :shrug:
Since there's no official news yet, we'll have to keep an eye on the ITF players list: Olympic Tennis Event - Rio 2016 . They made an update with Cibulkova out / Zheng in and the Bryan's but Moni currently still there.
According to the tabloids Monica returned to Bucharest on Monday and will go to a doctor in Switzerland for a check-up on her back and only Thursday she'll decide if she's going to Rio or not
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