Monica Niculescu was born on 25 September 1987 and is a Romanian professional tennis player.
47 Facts About Monica Niculescu
2.
Monica Niculescu has been ranked by the Women's Tennis Association as high as 28 in singles and 11 in doubles.
3.
Monica Niculescu has ranked within the top 30 for several years in singles.
4.
Monica Niculescu entered the Grand Slam doubles final at Wimbledon 2017 tournament, together with Chan Hao-ching.
5.
Monica Niculescu reached the quarterfinals in doubles in all Grand Slam championships.
6.
Monica Niculescu was born in Slatina but moved to Bucharest when she was age 4.
7.
Monica Niculescu's mother Cristiana Silvia is a pharmaceutical sales representative, and her father Mihai Niculescu is an engineer.
8.
Monica Niculescu has an older sister, Gabriela, who was a professional tennis player.
9.
Monica Niculescu won eight out of fourteen doubles events, most of them paired with her sister, Gabriela Niculescu.
10.
Monica Niculescu reached the finals in girls' doubles at the French Open in 2004, paired with Madalina Gojnea, and twice in Wimbledon in 2004 and 2005, paired with Marina Erakovic.
11.
Monica Niculescu had her first WTA Tour debuting attempt in May 2006 at the Istanbul Cup but lost in qualifying.
12.
Monica Niculescu finished the year 2007 in the top 200.
13.
Monica Niculescu continued making debuts at the French Open, Wimbledon and US Open, at Tier I events such as the Italian Open and Canadian Open.
14.
Monica Niculescu finished the year inside the top 50 in both singles and doubles.
15.
Monica Niculescu fell outside the top 100 at the end of the year, ranked 103.
16.
Monica Niculescu then had two consecutive Grand Slam third rounds - French Open and Wimbledon.
17.
Monica Niculescu then won a WTA Tour doubles title, at the Budapest Grand Prix, winning alongside Alisa Kleybanova.
18.
Monica Niculescu beat fellow Romanian and top-30 player, Alexandra Dulgheru, then lost her semifinal match to Elena Vesnina.
19.
Monica Niculescu then played against Tsvetana Pironkova, the 32nd seed; Niculescu lost five games.
20.
Monica Niculescu lost her semifinal match to Anabel Medina Garrigues.
21.
Monica Niculescu failed to reach her first singles Grand Slam quarterfinal after losing to Angelique Kerber in the straight-sets.
22.
Monica Niculescu then defeated top 50 Chanelle Scheepers, losing three games.
23.
Monica Niculescu then finished the year with another WTA final, at the Luxembourg Open, but finished as a runner-up.
24.
Monica Niculescu reached the semifinal of the Brisbane International in the first week of the year.
25.
Monica Niculescu reached only one WTA final, at the Baku Cup in July 2011.
26.
Monica Niculescu then jumped to the final of the Luxembourg Open for the second year in a row after making four consecutive straight-sets wins.
27.
Monica Niculescu still did not win her first WTA singles title, losing to Venus Williams in the final match.
28.
Monica Niculescu started the 2013 season with the semifinal of the Shenzhen Open.
29.
Monica Niculescu started the year with two back-to-back quarterfinals of the Shenzhen Open and Hobart International.
30.
Monica Niculescu won all matches in straight sets, defeating No 22 Alize Cornet in the final.
31.
Monica Niculescu started the 2014 season with two back-to-back titles at the Shenzhen Open and Hobart International.
32.
Monica Niculescu then returned to the WTA Tour, where she got to the final in the Nottingham Open after defeating No 13 Agnieszka Radwanska.
33.
Monica Niculescu played in the semifinal of the Bucharest Open, followed up then with the quarterfinal of the Washington Open.
34.
Monica Niculescu finished the year with the Premier Kremlin Cup final and title at the $100K Poitiers tournament.
35.
Monica Niculescu started the year with the title at the Shenzhen Open in doubles event.
36.
Monica Niculescu then made her debut at the Olympics Games.
37.
Monica Niculescu played in the first round of Wimbledon, Canadian Open, US Open and Wuhan Open.
38.
Monica Niculescu started 2019 by reaching the quarterfinals of the Shenzhen Open but lost to Wang Yafan.
39.
At the Prague Open, Monica Niculescu finished runner-up alongside Olaru losing to Lucie Hradecka and Kristyna Pliskova.
40.
At the Tokyo Olympics, Monica Niculescu started only in the doubles event.
41.
Monica Niculescu got to the quarterfinals of the US Open alongside Ruse, this being her first Grand Slam quarterfinal since the 2018 Australian Open and the first one at the US Open.
42.
Monica Niculescu ended the season with the doubles title at the WTA 125 Open de Limoges, alongside Vera Zvonareva.
43.
Monica Niculescu is a right-handed player, known for her unorthodox style of play.
44.
Monica Niculescu is able to force tricky drop shots and precise volleys.
45.
Monica Niculescu cited Martina Hingis and Andre Agassi as her tennis idols.
46.
Monica Niculescu's opponents have not always enjoyed playing against her, since her playing style is opposite to what most players do.
47.
One tactic Monica Niculescu uses to break through her opponent's defence is to force her opponent to run more by using her good footwork.