In 2007, she continued to play many ITF tournaments, and she also played in qualifications in all four Grand Slam and three other WTA tournaments, but only in Dubai she reached the main draw. In defeating Lucie Šafářová, 6–0, 6–1, Niculescu advanced to the fourth round of a Grand Slam singles competition for the first time in her career, where she lost 4–6, 3–6 to unseeded Angelique Kerber. In the second round, they lost to Cara Black and Liezel Huber, 3–6, 2–6. She won the WTA 125 Series Open at Limoges on 12 November. Click here to find out more info. 1 Serena Williams twice in a row in the second round of Indian Wells and Miami. In all, Niculescu had an improving season, reaching round three at Australian Open, round two at Roland Garros and Wimbledon, quarterfinals in Shenzhen, Hobart and Florianópolis, and semifinals in Bucharest. [1], Niculescu earned a spot in the fourth round at the Wimbledon Championships for the first time, defeating Monica Puig 5–7, 6–3, 6–1, Jana Čepelová 6–3, 6–3, and Kristýna Plíšková 6–3, 7–5. 59 in the WTA rankings. [2], Niculescu reached a career-high ranking of 16 in doubles in July. She also suffered first-round losses at Shenzhen, Hobart, the Australian Open, Dubai, Prague, and the French Open. 271 in the WTA rankings and No. Your IP: 91.237.68.20 She is also best known for her trademark forehand-slice, her winning deamenour and her exceptional shot-making abilities at the net. En route to the final, she spent many hours on court with a 6–7, 7–5, 7–6 first-round victory over Karin Knapp, a second-round 7–6, 3–6, 6–1 win over Anabel Medina Garrigues, and a 7–5, 4–6, 6–3 win in three hours over 2010 finalist Anne Keothavong in the semifinals. Cloudflare Ray ID: 5ddc5d851b101661 [1] Niculescu has an older sister, Gabriela, who was a professional tennis player too and attended University of Idaho, after transferring from USC after her junior year. We use cookies to provide our services and for analytics and marketing. Find the latest matches, stats and ranking history for Monica Niculescu. SR=strike rate (events won/competed). She beat Peng Shuai in the first round in three sets, 3–6, 7–5, 6–2, and then lost to world No. • While she managed to test Williams with a 5–7, 5–7 score, she was not able to win a set against her in either match. Her mother, Cristiana Silvia Niculescu is a pharmaceutical sales representative; her father Mihai Niculescu is an engineer. If you are on a personal connection, like at home, you can run an anti-virus scan on your device to make sure it is not infected with malware. This is the second time she has made it past the third round at a major. She reached her career-high singles ranking of world No. Despite winning the first set of her fourth-round match 6–1 and having a positive head-to-head record against the player, she was defeated by 15th-seeded Timea Bacsinszky, who took the next two sets. ATP & WTA tennis players at Tennis Explorer offers profiles of the best tennis players and a database of men's and women's tennis players. She started her season at Shenzhen Open with a victory, defeating Zhang Kailin, but she lost her second match to Wang Qiang.