Monica Niculescu to resume play at the Shenzhen Longgang Gemdale Open 2013 – Tennis News
World number 58, Monica Niculescu, will open her New Year at the Shenzhen Longgang Gemdale Open that will be contested in China from 30th December, 2012 to 5th January, 2013. The tournament is the newest entrant
in the list of the Women Tennis Association Tours and the first one to be played in China.
Niculescu struggled a bit in the latter half of the season; almost failed to capitalize on the fast start that helped her cruise up in the Top-30’s during March. However, she slipped terrible from the 28th spot in the
world rankings to her year-end rank of world number 58. It has been a topsy turvy season for the 25-year-old Romanian who had to tackle several injuries that troubled her on multiple tours over the course of the season.
She started at Auckland and moved to Hobart but only registered a single victory in the warm-up events. However, the bad patch ended at the Australian Open where she picked up two crucial wins before losing out to the top seed
contestant, Caroline Wozniacki, in the third round.
She showed some class at the Qatar Ladies Open by reaching the quarter-final but faced a miserable time of her career; just four wins in 17 consecutive tournaments. It included the three Grand Slam events; French Open, Wimbledon
and the US Open along with an opening round loss at the London Olympics.
However, the frustrating run was finally put to an end at the BGL Luxembourg Open where she defeated a seeded player on her way into the final. However, she couldn’t keep up the momentum against the former world number one, Venus
Williams, and lost the battle in straight sets.
It was the last premier tour of the Romanian for the year 2012. She played two challengers and made a semi-final appearance in Poitiers before winning the tournament at Nantes. It is going to be a tough task for the Romanian diva
to break free at Shenzhen because the squad is pretty competitive with the Former French Open Champion, Li Na, as the top seed and the number one Frenchwoman, Marion Bartoli, as the second favourite for the title.
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