[JujulCactus]

Thanks a lot for your reports ChrisCHorse
I was so surprised when Monica won 4 games in a row 2/4 to 6/4 !
That's good to see creative game,
I hope I will see a Niculescu match this year !
I'm very curious to know how she play now ...
ChrisCHorse you were at Wimbledon ?
Or you saw videos ?

Good luck to Monica for her second round match

[Meelis]

R2: Szavay def. Niculescu 5-7 7-5 6-2

Monica was 7-5 5-3 up

[Dorien.]

Yeah, i was so hoping she could make it.

but again a great tournament for her

[teo_honey]

Such a sad memory for her

[kittyking]

Hopefully Chris got to this match, would be interesting to hear what happenned. Looking at the scoreline and stats it would suggest that Monica was up a set and 5-3 but then her serve percentage started to fall along with the amount of points she won on her second serves, along with the games.

[Shvedbarilescu]

Well what can you say? Szavay was a good opponent. She wasn't easy. But Monica was in complete control of the match. Unfortunately, Monica got distracted by a couple of umpire overrules and never regained focus. And once one game slipped she just totally lost commitment to her game. This isn't the first time this has happened, it kind of happened last year in the 2nd round of qualifying against Cornet but this was more glarring and quite sad to see. The 3rd set was a real downer.

Hard to believe that the same player could play as well as she did yesterday and as poorly during stages of the 3rd set as she did today. But tennis is strange.

Monica has made so much improvement in her game over the last year. Her serve has improved out of sight from what it was last year compared to this year. She is also moving better too. But she still has more to work on. And the areas where the most improvement are needed are her mental strength and focus along with her body language.

In 2009 I want to see Monica back in SW19, a girl who gives nothing to the opponent in terms of her body langauge and one whose focus, commitment, and fighting spirit is continuous and unshakable. Rafael Nadal and Agnieszka Radwanska would be great examples for Monica to emulate in terms of mental toughness. I believe Monica is totally capable of achieving this. It is an exciting prospect. A mentally tough Monica will be a formidable opponent to every single player on the WTA tour. Good luck Monica, you can do it.

[kittyking]

Great report

Hopefully Monica will stay in Wimbledon and watch Marina play (she's done it before )

[Shvedbarilescu]

Originally Posted by kittyking

Great report

Hopefully Monica will stay in Wimbledon and watch Marina play (she's done it before )

Monica will definately be around a while longer. Monica and Sorana won their doubles match 6-1 ret. They both played very well. I was concerned that Monica would look down and wouldn't have her heart in it for the doubles but far from it. She looked so happy playing doubles and was full of energy. She was talking a lot to Sorana during the breaks and was smiling and laughing and jumping up and down. The loss to Agnes is definately not going to stay with her. She will keep getting better and she is clearly and very happy soul.

[Dorien.]

Originally Posted by ChrisCHorse

Monica will definately be around a while longer. Monica and Sorana won their doubles match 6-1 ret. They both played very well. I was concerned that Monica would look down and wouldn't have her heart in it for the doubles but far from it. She looked so happy playing doubles and was full of energy. She was talking a lot to Sorana during the breaks and was smiling and laughing and jumping up and down. The loss to Agnes is definately not going to stay with her. She will keep getting better and she is clearly and very happy soul.

i have seen her playing double twice in Zwevegem and Torhout with Tammy Hendler and it was just the same thing. Smiling laughing very nice to see

[teo_honey]

Unfortunately Monica and Sorana lost their 2nd round match in not a very elegant fashion. 6-1 6-2 for the 3rd seeds, Peschke and Stubbs.

[Dorien.]

Somebody knows what the next tournament of Monica is?

[Dave.]

Yeah where will Monica next be competing?

As a result of her Wimbledon success, Monica has gone from 87 to 81 in the rankings!

I really want her to keep going higher so she doesn't have to play qualifying and is guranteed to stay on the main tour.

[Shvedbarilescu]

Good news regarding Monica. It looks like she will be one of the top seeds in qualifying for the US Hardcourt Tier II in Stanford next week and she is in the main draw for the Los Angeles Tier II the week after. I am assuming she is in the draw for the Tier I Canadian Open too and hopefully she will get into the main draw of that, as I expect a few players will be withdrawing from that with the Olympics coming up. As for the Olympics sadly I don't think she is likely to make it to China as her ranking wasn't quite high enough.

I suppose if a few players withdraw in the next couple of days Monica still has a chance to make the main draw of Stanford but in a way it might be better for her qualifying for that one anyway as it will give her a few warm up matches and a few extra ranking points prior to her main draw match. That of course is assuming she qualifies but as one of the top seeds in qualifying and being a fine hard court player I think that is a reasonable assumption to make. I certainly expect nothing less.

I think Monica has made a very good decision going to the US early and playing the big summer hardcourt events. These should be very suited to Monica's skills and there are a lot of ranking points available. Much better for Monica to be playing on hard courts than on clay at this point in the season, especially as Monica is substantially better on hard than she is on clay.

[teo_honey]

Yay! I hope this is a good decision for Monica. We'll see how she does. Good luck!

[Shvedbarilescu]

Well the Stanford qualifying draw is out and Monica is the number 2 seed. I can't complain about the draw at all. In truth I am pretty confident Monica can get through this pretty comfortably. That said, it is a pretty awkward 1st match...

Here is Monica's draw...

(2)Monica Niculescu
Anna Tatishvili
Rika Fujiwara
Melinda Czink
Alexandra Stevenson
WC Cara Black
Darya Kustova
(7)Meng Yuan

The unusual thing about the draw is that it gets easier as it goes. The 1st round is the only round where Monica faces an genuinely inform player. Anna Tatishvili has in the last month won the 1st two ITF tournaments of her career. She goes into this match on a 10 game winning streak. The fact that all 10 of these matches were also on US hardcourts means Anna will be very comfortable with the surface and full of confidence. So this match can certainly be considered a potential banana skin, but that said, it is still a match Monica should win. After that comes Czink or Fujiwara. Neither is playing poorly but neither should pose any kind of threat to Monica either. And her final match should be the easiest of all. Providing Monica gets to this stage there will be no slip up here. So the main match will be the match with Tatishvili. This match should start Saturday around 6pm English time and for most of Continental Europe at about 7pm.

Good luck Monica. Kick ass.