Monica Niculescu

Monica Niculescu

Niculescu 2016 at Wimbledon

Nation:

Romania

Birthday:

25th September 1987 (age 32)

Size:

168 cm

Weight:

63 kg

1st professional season:

2002

Playing hand:

Right, two-handed backhand

Trainer:

Călin Stelian Ciorbagiu

Prize money:

$ 6,007,338

singles

Career record:

512: 352

Career title:

3 WTA , 1 WTA Challenger, 19 ITF

Highest ranking:

28 (February 27, 2012)

Current placement:

129

Grand Slam record

Grand Slam title: 00000 0

Australian Open	3R (2011, 2012, 2014)
French Open	2R (2014)
Wimbledon	AF (2015)
US Open	AF (2011)

Double

Career record:

444: 259

Career title:

9 WTA, 22 ITF

Highest ranking:

11 (April 2, 2018)

Current placement:

47

Grand Slam record

Grand Slam title: 00000 0

Australian Open	HF (2018)
French Open	VF (2010)
Wimbledon	F (2017)
US Open	AF (2009, 2010, 2016, 2017)

Mixed

Grand Slam record

Grand Slam title: 00000 0

Australian Open	1R (2010, 2011)
French Open	1R (2010)
Wimbledon	2R (2009, 2010)
US Open	1R (2009)

Last update of the infobox:
January 20, 2020

Sources: official player profiles at the ATP / WTA and ITF (see web links )

Monica Niculescu (born September 25, 1987 in Slatina ) is a Romanian tennis player .

Career

Niculescu, who has been a professional player since May 2002, has already played 52 games for the Romanian Fed Cup team since 2004 and celebrated 31 wins. She has also won 19 individual ITF tournaments so far .

Their first major success on the WTA Tour , she celebrated with the three-time move into a quarter final: In 2008, she lost in Tashkent on hard court (Category: Tier IV) against Peng Shuai in the third set with 4: 6 and the following year she lost in Strasbourg on Sand and in Tashkent on hard court (both international category) Aravane Rezaï and Jaroslawa Schwedowa each in the third set. So far, she has twice been in the round of 16 of a Grand Slam tournament , in 2011 at the US Open and in 2015 at Wimbledon . In 2013 Niculescu won the first edition of the WTA Brasil Tennis Cup in Florianópolis and with it her first WTA title in singles when she defeated Olga Putschkowa in three sets in the final there.

In doubles, she won her first WTA title in 2009 at the tournament in Budapest , where she and doubles partner Alissa Kleibanowa defeated sisters Aljona and Kateryna Bondarenko in straight sets in the final. Her second title win followed in January 2012 at the side of her compatriot Irina-Camelia Begu in Hobart . At Grand Slam tournaments, she celebrated her greatest success at the side of Shahar Peer in 2010 when she reached the quarter-finals of the French Open (two-set defeat against Nuria Llagostera Vives and María José Martínez Sánchez ), which she had at the Australian Open in 2012 by Irina-Camelia Begu (two-sentence defeat in the quarterfinals against the pairing Swetlana Kuznetsova and Vera Swonaryova ). In addition, she won 22 ITF double titles with changing partners.

2011 should be by far the best year for the Romanian. Already at the Australian Open she reached the third round after victories over Timea Bacsinszky and the seeded Zwetana Pironkowa , in which she was defeated by Francesca Schiavone 0: 6, 6: 7. At the clay court tournament in Estoril she moved into the semifinals after a 5: 7, 6: 4, 6: 2 over Jarmila Gajdošová , in which she was defeated by the eventual winner Anabel Medina Garrigues in two straight sets. After minor injury problems in the summer, she traveled well rested to the US Open , where, after clear victories over Patricia Mayr-Achleitner , Alexandra Dulgheru and Lucie Šafářová, she made it into the round of 16 of a Grand Slam tournament for the first time in her career and was eliminated by Angelique Kerber . At the Premier Mandatory tournament in Beijing , she was able to confirm her good shape by defeating the reigning French Open winner Li Na 6: 4 and 6: 0 as a qualifier and advancing to the semifinals, in which she was defeated by Andrea Petković .

At the last WTA tournament of the year in Luxembourg , she made it into a final for the first time, after having had to fend off match points in the first round against qualifier Karin Knapp . After narrow victories over Anabel Medina Garrigues, Lucie Hradecká and Anne Keothavong , she had no chance in the final against the top seeded Wiktoryja Asaranka . The points earned towards the end of the season were enough to place in the top 30 of the world rankings for the first time and thus to end the year as the highest listed Romanian tennis player.

In 2012 she reached the third round at the Australian Open with victories over Alizé Cornet and Pauline Parmentier , in which she was eliminated in two sets against Caroline Wozniacki . In the final of Luxembourg she was lost to Venus Williams at 2: 6, 3: 6.

At the beginning of 2014 she won her WTA double titles number three and four in Shenzhen and Hobart , each alongside Klára Zakopalová . With a final victory over Alizé Cornet in Guangzhou in September 2014, after a year and a half, she was able to win an individual title on the WTA Tour again.

Her next individual title was a long time coming, when Niculescu won the tournament in Luxembourg . In 2017 she won the tournament in Limoges . In the same year Niculescu reached the double-finals of Wimbledon with Chan Hao-ching , where they had no chance against Jekaterina Makarowa and Jelena Wesnina with 0: 6, 0: 6 .

In the doubles competition of the Australian Open 2018 , Niculescu advanced to the semifinals together with Irina-Camelia Begu .

Tournament victories

singles

No.	date	competition	category	Topping	Final opponent	Result
1.	March 2, 2013	Brazil Florianópolis	WTA International	Hard court	Russia Olga Putschkova	6: 2, 4: 6, 6: 4
2.	20th September 2014	China People's Republic Guangzhou	WTA International	Hard court	France Alizé Cornet	6: 4, 6: 0
3.	October 22, 2016	Luxembourg Luxembourg	WTA International	Hard court (hall)	Czech Republic Petra Kvitová	6: 4, 6: 0
4th	November 12, 2017	France Limoges	WTA Challenger	Hard court (hall)	Germany Antonia Lottner	6: 4, 6: 2

Double

No.	date	competition	category	Topping	Partner	Final opponents	Result
1.	July 6, 2009	Hungary Budapest	WTA International	sand	Russia Alissa Kleibanova	Ukraine Aljona Bondarenko Kateryna Bondarenko Ukraine	6: 4, 7: 6 ⁵
2.	January 14, 2012	Australia Hobart	WTA International	Hard court	Romania Irina-Camelia Begu	Chinese Taipei Chuang Chia-jung Marina Eraković New Zealand	6: 7 ⁴ , 7: 6 ⁴ , [10: 5]
3.	4th January 2014	China People's Republic Shenzhen	WTA International	Hard court	Czech Republic Klára Zakopalová	Ukraine Lyudmyla Kitschenok Nadija Kitschenok Ukraine	6: 3, 6: 4
4th	January 11, 2014	Australia Hobart	WTA International	Hard court	Czech Republic Klára Zakopalová	United States Lisa Raymond Zhang Shuai China People's Republic	6: 2, 6: 7 ⁵ , [10: 8]
5.	January 9, 2016	China People's Republic Shenzhen	WTA International	Hard court	United States Vania King	China People's Republic Xu Yifan Zheng Saisai China People's Republic	6: 1, 6: 4
6th	23rd July 2016	United States Washington	WTA International	Hard court	Belgium Yanina Wickmayer	Japan Shūko Aoyama Risa Ozaki Japan	6: 4, 6: 3
7th	August 27, 2016	United States New Haven	WTA Premier	Hard court	India Sania Mirza	Ukraine Kateryna Bondarenko Chuang Chia-young Chinese Taipei	7: 5, 6: 4
8th.	April 16, 2017	Switzerland Biel	WTA International	Hard court (hall)	Chinese Taipei Hsieh Su-wei	Switzerland Timea Bacsinszky Martina Hingis Switzerland	5: 7, 6: 3, [10: 7]
9.	3rd February 2019	Thailand Hua Hin	WTA International	Hard court	Romania Irina-Camelia Begu	Russia Anna Blinkowa Wang Yafan China People's Republic	2: 6, 6: 1, [12:10]