Tennis Player Monica Niculescu
Romanian tennis has seen two major performances these days. On Saturday, Monica Niculescu won the WTA tournament hosted by the city of Guangzhou in China, with no less than five hundred thousand dollars prize money up for grabs. Then on Saturday, the Spanish-Romanian pair made of Irina Begu and Laura Arruabarrena won the women’s doubles finals of the Seoul WTA tournament, with five hundred thousand dollars prize money at stake.
In order to designate the Athlete of the Week, Radio Romania International had to choose between Monica Niculescu and Irina Begu. The title this week went to Monica Niculescu, who won a singles competition and went up 19 places in the WTA rankings.
In the final of the Guangzhou tournament, Monica Niculescu snatched a 6-4, 6-nil win against the French Alize Cornet. It only took Monica one hour and forty-four minutes to outclass an opponent who made as many as 12 double faults. In the first set, Cornet had a 4-2 lead, yet shortly thereafter Monica Niculescu won 10 games in a row. We should also note that Niculescu did not lose any set the entire tournament. Monica Niculescu was rewarded with 111,163 dollars and 280 WTA points.
Monica Niculescu has thus succeeded her best performance so far in 2014. We recall that a couple of months ago in Bucharest, Monica lost to Simona Halep, in the finals of the WTA Bucharest Open. Winning the Guangzhou tournament has been the second WTA title in Monica Niculescu’s career, after the 2013 win of the Florianopolis tournament in Brazil. Niculescu also played two WTA finals, in Luxembourg, in 2011 and 2012, respectively.
Monica Niculescu was born in the southern Romanian city of Slatina on September 25, 1987. She has been living in Bucharest ever since she was 4. She began playing tennis at the age of five and turned professional in 2002. Her highest position in WTA rankings so far was a 28th place in February 2013. At the moment Monica Niculescu is ranked 41st in the women’s singles rankings and 39th in the women’s doubles.
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