Athlete of the Week on RRI – Tennis Player Monica Niculescu

Last week the tennis pair made up of Monica Niculescu of Romania and Sania Mirza of India won the womens doubles event at the WTA tournament in New Haven. In the final game, Niculescu and Mirza, the competition second seeds, won 7-5, 6-4 against Katerina Bodarenko of Ukraine and Chia-Jun Chung of Taiwan. The match lasted one hour and a half.

Florin Orban, 30.08.2016, 13:27

The competition in Connecticut offered 695,900 dollars in prize money, and the winners of the final grabbed 40,650 dollars. For their achievement, Mirza and Niculescu were also awarded 470 WTA points. The Indian player still holds on to the first position in doubles rankings, while Monica Niculescu has climbed to 15th position, her career best. For her remarkable performance, we have designated Monica Niculescu Athlete of the Week on Radio Romania International.

Monica Niculescu was born on September 25, 1987 in Slatina. She has been living in Bucharest since the age of four. She took up tennis at five and turned pro in 2002. Her highest ranking in womens singles was 28th place in February 2012. She is now ranked 58th.

These days Monica Niculescu is also taking part in the US Open. In the first preliminary round, Niculescu knocked out Barbora Strycova of the Czech Republic, seeded 18th in the competition, score 6-3, 6-7, 6-1. In the second round Niculescu will take on another Romanian player, Ana Bogdan, who in the first round edged out Sorana Cirstea, also of Romania, 0-6, 7-5, 6-2.

(Translated by V. Palcu)