[Shvedbarilescu]

Originally Posted by Curcubeu

You answered yourself, when she is focused and when she is confident I would say. I take the match against Knapp as an example. She easily cruised through the first set even playing some superb shots at times, but just reverted to pushing afterwards. Far too passive and yeah, brainless for a player like her just to let the opponent do and react, only replying with forehand slices.

I agree with the freefall, but that may be also caused by her temper. She is very vocal and probably loses focus by lamentating too much.
It is and it is very surprising to me, because i've already seen her on the edge of Top 100 after that week. Now, she will lose just 70 points at most, which is still enough for a spot in the Top 80 after that long injuy break and enough to avoid playing too much qualifiers in smaller events next year.

There is still a bunch of points for her to defend at the AO and especially Doha next year - afterwards more or less nothing for the rest of the season.

Oh yeah, the freefalls are totally due to the temper. When something goes wrong Monica struggles to let go of it and she stops thinking. Which is why one bad game so often turns into a run of 3, 4 or even more consecutive bad games. That has always been a problem for her. Good thing this week is that at least she isn't allowing those freefall periods to last more than two or three games. The way Monica focused during the 2nd half of the last set when Lucie was playing much better was really good to see. Great hold in that last game.

[Dorien.]

Great to see her in the semifinal. I'm happy to see her ranking will still be ok even after this bad season.

[soimu]

Monica.
She is ending the season in a positive manner.

[Djezonfly]

Stream quality is too god for my stupid connection, it keeps freezing

[Djezonfly]

She did it again Too bad I couldn't watch the match

[Curcubeu]

6-1 6-3

Routining scrubs left and right.

What an amazing, yet completely random run. Now, win it all, girl!

[codrutc]

Good job Niculescu! I hope she wins the Final too.

[Shvedbarilescu]

Really great performance. And so many pissed off posters too. Pretty much perfecto.

What I loved today was that the focus hardly ever wavered. Yeah, the start of the 2nd set wasn't ideal but she got her attention back so quickly today, that the "freefall" wasn't a freefall at all, just a tiny blip. Absolutely great performance. Monica played that match full of confidence and and resolve and she had an answer to pretty everything Dani could ask while Dani had no answer at all to Monica's questions.

[Curcubeu]

I love how the haters are crawling back in full force = Monica is relevant again.

[soimu]

Bravo Monica !

[grs]

Monica

She's like Mourihno's Inter on this forum - hated for winning against public favorites.

[Ollie_R]

Monica's game isn't ugly to me at all...dunno why so many say her playing style is horrible.

[Curcubeu]

It can look very awkward when she is getting trashed - yeah, then Monica most likely looks like the worst player in the world, but when it's paying off, especially on fast surfaces, it's a fresh and different style for today's game.

Final tomorrow at 3pm CET.

[Ollie_R]

Originally Posted by Curcubeu

It can look very awkward when she is getting trashed - yeah, then Monica most likely looks like the worst player in the world, but when it's paying off, especially on fast surfaces, it's a fresh and different style for today's game.

Final tomorrow at 3pm CET.

Yeah, I haven't seen her play really badly tbh...but still, it's pretty cool most of the time.

[Shvedbarilescu]

Originally Posted by grs

Monica

She's like Mourihno's Inter on this forum - hated for winning against public favorites.