Monica Niculescu (born 25 September 1987) is a Romanian professional

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

player. She has been

ranked A ranking is a relationship between a set of items such that, for any two items, the first is either "ranked higher than", "ranked lower than" or "ranked equal to" the second. In mathematics, this is known as a weak order or total preorder of ...

by the

Women's Tennis Association The Women's Tennis Association (WTA) is the principal organizing body of women's professional tennis. It governs the WTA Tour which is the worldwide professional tennis tour for women and was founded to create a better future for women's tenni ...

as high as 28 in singles and 11 in doubles. Niculescu has won several titles: three singles and ten doubles titles on the

WTA Tour The WTA Tour is a worldwide top-tier tennis tour for women organized by the Women's Tennis Association. The second-tier tour is the WTA 125K series, and third-tier is the ITF Women's Circuit. The men's equivalent is the ATP Tour. WTA Tour tourna ...

, one singles and one doubles title at

WTA 125 tournaments WTA 125 tournaments are an international series of professional women's tennis tournaments organized by the Women's Tennis Association since 2012. In the past (2012–2015) sometimes called the WTA Challenger series ITF Women's Circuit The ITF Women's World Tennis Tour, previously known as the ITF Women's Circuit, is a series of professional tennis tournaments run by the International Tennis Federation for female professional tennis players. History It serves as a developmental ...

. She has ranked within the top 30 for several years in singles. Niculescu entered the

Grand Slam Grand Slam most often refers to: * Grand Slam (tennis), one player or pair winning all four major annual tournaments, or the tournaments themselves Grand Slam or Grand slam may also refer to: Games and sports * Grand slam, winning category te ...

doubles final at

Wimbledon Wimbledon most often refers to: * Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London * Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships Wimbledon may also refer to: Places London * ...

2017 tournament, together with

Chan Hao-ching Chan Hao-ching (; ; born September 19, 1993), also known as Angel Chan, is a Taiwanese professional tennis player. She is primarily a doubles specialist, having won 18 WTA, 2 WTA Challenger and 6 ITF titles in that discipline. Chan reached the ...

. She reached the quarterfinals in doubles in all Grand Slam championships. In

WTA 1000 WTA 1000 tournaments is a category of tennis tournaments on the WTA Tour, governed by the Women's Tennis Association. The old WTA Premier Mandatory and Premier 5 tournaments merged into a single highest tier and it is implemented since the r ...

tournaments, she got into three finals (doubles), six semifinals (5 in doubles), and 12 quarterfinals (11 in doubles). In singles, her best Grand Slam performance is reaching round four, which she did at the 2011 US Open and 2015 Wimbledon Championships.

Early life

Niculescu was born in Slatina but moved to

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north of ...

when she was four. Her mother, Cristiana Silvia, is a

pharmaceutical sales representative Pharmaceutical sales representatives (formerly detailmen) are salespeople employed by pharmaceutical companies to persuade doctors to prescribe their drugs to patients. Drug companies in the United States spend ~$5 billion annually sending r ...

, while her father Mihai Niculescu is an engineer. She has an older sister,

Gabriela Gabriela may refer to: * Gabriela (given name), a Spanish, Portuguese and Romanian feminine given name * ''Gabriela'' (1942 film), a Czech film * ''Gabriela'' (1950 film), a German film * ''Gabriela'' (1983 film), a Brazilian film * ''Gabriela' ...

, who was also a professional tennis player.

Junior career

Before reaching the age of 18, Niculescu had won 11 singles finals in the

ITF Junior Circuit The ITF Junior Circuit is the premier level for worldwide competition among under-18 junior tennis players. Founded in 1977 with only nine tournaments, the 2011 ITF Junior Circuit offered over 350 tournaments in 118 countries. Mirroring the ATP an ...

, losing only one set: *

(Aug 2002), 6–1, 7–6 against

Tsvetana Pironkova Tsvetana Kirilova Pironkova ( bg, Цветана Кирилова Пиронкова ; born 13 September 1987) is a Bulgarian professional tennis player. Considered to be one of the best grass court players of her generation, she has been not ...

Cavtat Cavtat (, it, Ragusa Vecchia, lit=Old Ragusa) is a village in the Dubrovnik-Neretva County of Croatia. It is on the Adriatic Sea coast south of Dubrovnik and is the centre of the Konavle municipality. History Antiquity The original city was ...

(Apr 2003) 6–4, 6–1 against

Darija Jurak Darija Jurak Schreiber (née Jurak; ; born 5 April 1984) is a Croatian professional tennis player. Her career-high doubles ranking is world No. 9, achieved on 15 November 2021. Her best WTA ranking in singles of 188 she reached in April 2004. ...

* Timişoara (Aug 2003) 6–2, 6–3 against Veronika Rizhik *

Albufeira Albufeira () is a city and seat of its own municipality in the district of Faro, in the southernmost Portuguese region of Algarve. The municipality population in 2021 was 44,158, in an area of . The city proper had a population of 28,645 in 2021 ...

(Feb 2004) 6–1, 3–6, 6–0 against

Irina Kotkina Irina Kotkina (born 19 September 1986) is a Russian former professional tennis player. Biography A right-handed player from Moscow, Kotkina was a top 10 ranked junior. At the 2004 French Open, she and Yaroslava Shvedova were runners-up in the gi ...

Portimão Portimão () is a city and a municipality in the district of Faro, in the Algarve region of southern Portugal. The population in 2011 was 55,614, in an area of 182.06 km2. It was formerly known as Vila Nova de Portimão (). In 1924, it was ...

(Feb 2004) 6–4, 7–6 against Nadja Pavić * Bucharest (May 2004) 6–2, 6–2 against

Simona Matei Simona-Iulia Matei (born 7 July 1985) is a former professional Romanian tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each pla ...

Iași Iași ( , , ; also known by other alternative names), also referred to mostly historically as Jassy ( , ), is the second largest city in Romania and the seat of Iași County. Located in the historical region of Moldavia, it has traditionally ...

(Aug 2004) 7–6, 6–0 against

Raluca Olaru Ioana Raluca Olaru (born 3 March 1989) is a professional tennis player from Romania. The winner of 11 singles and 15 doubles ITF titles, Olaru reached one WTA singles final, at the 2009 Gastein Ladies,WTA TourPetkovic, Olaru Into Final(25 Jul ...

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...

(Mar 2005) 6–4, 6–2 against

Galina Fokina Galina Fokina () (born 17 January 1984) is a Russian former tennis player. Fokina has won a total of 35 titles on the ITF Women's Circuit. Her career-high WTA rankings are world number 168 in singles and number 79 in doubles, both achieved in 2 ...

* Ain Alsoukhna (Mar 2005) 6–3, 6–4 against

Magdaléna Rybáriková Magdaléna Rybáriková (; born 4 October 1988) is a retired Slovak tennis player. In her career, she won four singles titles and one doubles title on the WTA Tour. Rybáriková reached the semifinals of the 2017 Wimbledon Championships and bro ...

Antalya Antalya () is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, fifth-most populous city in Turkey as well as the capital of Antalya Province. Located on Anatolia's southwest coast bordered by the Taurus Mountains, Antalya is the largest Turkish cit ...

(May 2005) 6–2, 6–2 against

Ekaterina Dzehalevich Ekaterina Dzehalevich ( be, Кацярына Міхайлаўна Дзегалевіч; russian: Екатерина Михайловна Деголевич; born 3 May 1986) is a former professional Belarusian tennis player. Her career-high singl ...

Coimbra Coimbra (, also , , or ) is a city and a municipality in Portugal. The population of the municipality at the 2011 census was 143,397, in an area of . The fourth-largest urban area in Portugal after Lisbon, Porto Metropolitan Area, Porto, and Bra ...

(Aug 2005) 6–3, 6–1 against

Aravane Rezaï Aravane Rezaï (; fa, ارغوان رضایی ''Arghavān-e Rezāyi'' , born 14 March 1987) is an Iranian–French tennis player. She has defeated many top players on the WTA Tour, such as Justine Henin, Venus Williams, Victoria Azarenk ...

. She also won eight out of fourteen doubles events, most of them paired with her sister, Gabriela Niculescu. She reached the finals in girls' doubles at the

French Open The French Open (french: Internationaux de France de tennis), also known as Roland-Garros (), is a major tennis tournament held over two weeks at the Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France, beginning in late May each year. The tournament and ven ...

in 2004, paired with

Mădălina Gojnea Mădălina-Victorița Gojnea (born 23 August 1987) is a former Romanian tennis player. On 4 July 2011, she reached her highest WTA singles ranking of 149 whilst her best doubles ranking was 191 on 9 July 2007. In 2013, only 25 years old, she a ...

, and twice in Wimbledon in 2004 and

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

, paired with

Marina Erakovic Marina Erakovic ( ; hr, Marina Eraković ; born 6 March 1988) is a retired tennis player from New Zealand. She achieved career-high rankings of 39 in singles and 25 in doubles, and won one singles title, at Memphis in February 2013, and eigh ...

Professional career

2007–08: First WTA doubles final, top 50 in the world

Monica Niculescu Roland Garros 2008 (cropped)

Niculescu had her first WTA Tour debuting attempt in May 2006 at the Istanbul Cup but lost in qualifying. In February of the following year, she made her

main-draw debut at the

Dubai Tennis Championships The Dubai Tennis Championships or Dubai Open (also known as the ''Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships'' for sponsorship reasons) (formerly known for sponsorship reasons as the ''Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships'' and the ''Dubai Duty Free Men's ...

. In June 2007, she played her first doubles event at the

Barcelona Open There are two sporting events named the Barcelona Open: * Barcelona Open (golf) * Barcelona Open (tennis) {{Short pages monitor