Radio România Internațional

Tag: Monica

  • Athlete of the Week

    Athlete of the Week

     

    The Romanian tennis player Monica Niculescu and Spain’s Cristina Bucşa Monday qualified into the quarter-finals of the doubles competition of the WTA 500 tournament in Strasbourg, with EUR 800,000 in total prize money. Monica and the Chişinău-born Cristina Bucşa, defeated Marie Bouzkova (Czech Republic) / Tereza Mihalikova (Slovakia) 6-1, 6-3, securing a EUR 7,400 cheque and 108 WTA points.

     

    In the quarter-finals, Niculescu and Bucşa will take on Ashlyn Kruger and Sloane Stephens (US). Last week, Monica and Lin Zhu (China) reached the doubles final of the WTA 125 Trophée Clarins in Paris, which had EUR 100,000 in prize money. For her performance in the French capital, Radio Romania International designated Monica Niculescu Athlete of the Week.

     

    In Paris, Monica Niculescu / Lin Zhu started off with a 6-3, 6-4 win against the Japanese Eri Hoizumi / Makoto Ninomiya. In the semis, they took on Greet Minnen (Belgium) / Heather Watson (UK). After 6-0 in the first set, Monica and her partner lost the second set 5-7, but in the tiebreak they managed a breath-taking 15-13. They lost the final however to Asia Muhammad (US) / Aldila Sutjiadi (Indonesia), 7-6, 4-6, 11-9.

     

    Monica Niculescu was born in Slatina, in the south of Romania, on September 25, 1987. She has been living in Bucharest since the age of 4, and took up tennis at 5 years of age. She has been a professional player since 2002. Her best place in the singles’ world ranking was 28th, in February 2012. She has won 3 WTA singles’ tournaments, in 2013 in Florianopolis, Brazil, in 2014 in Guangzhou, China, and in 2016 in Luxembourg.

     

    Her career in the doubles’ competitions has been a lot more successful, with 10 WTA titles won since 2009 in Budapest together with Alisa Kleybanova (Russia). Her best performance in the doubles’ WTA ranking came in April 2018, when she reached no. 11 in the world. At present she is no. 57 in the world doubles’ ranking.

  • Athlete of the Week

    Athlete of the Week

    Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates, is these days seeing a major womens WTA 500 tennis tournament with 780 thousand dollars in prize money.


    At the aforementioned competition, Romania is being represented by Monica Niculescu who pairs with Miyu Kato of Japan seeded 38th in the double ranking.


    The Romanian-Japanese pair will compete in the round of sixteen on Wednesday against the pair made up of Norwegian Ulrikke Eikeri and Alexa Guarachi of Chile, WTA 51st and 47th respectively.


    Monica Niculescu comes after a good week when she had made it to the semis of the Lyon tournament together with Viktorija Golubic of Switzerland. Her qualification for the French competition has been the best Romanian performance of the past days for which Radio Romania International has designated Monica Niculescu athlete of the week.


    Monica was born in Slatina, on September 25, 1987 and has lived in Bucharest since the age of four. She took up tennis when she was five years old and turned professional in 2002. She made to her highest position in the world ranking, 28th, in February 2012. She won three WTA single tournaments, in 2013 in Florianopolis, Brasil, in 2014 in Guangzhou, China, and in 2016 in Luxembourg.


    Her performances in the doubles competitions were even more notable as she reaped 10 WTA titles starting the year 2009, when she emerged as winner in Budapest together with Russian Alisa Kleybanova. She got the highest position in the WTA doubles ranking in April 2018 when she went eleventh.


    She started off on the right foot in 2023 with a qualification in the quarter finals of the Hobart tournament together with Alicia Barnett of Britain. Then she teamed up with Viktorija Golubic of Switzerland to make it to the round of 16th of the Australian Open. She is presently ranking 43rd in the world doubles ranking.


    (bill)


  • Athlete of the Week

    Athlete of the Week

    Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates, is these days seeing a major womens WTA 500 tennis tournament with 780 thousand dollars in prize money.


    At the aforementioned competition, Romania is being represented by Monica Niculescu who pairs with Miyu Kato of Japan seeded 38th in the double ranking.


    The Romanian-Japanese pair will compete in the round of sixteen on Wednesday against the pair made up of Norwegian Ulrikke Eikeri and Alexa Guarachi of Chile, WTA 51st and 47th respectively.


    Monica Niculescu comes after a good week when she had made it to the semis of the Lyon tournament together with Viktorija Golubic of Switzerland. Her qualification for the French competition has been the best Romanian performance of the past days for which Radio Romania International has designated Monica Niculescu athlete of the week.


    Monica was born in Slatina, on September 25, 1987 and has lived in Bucharest since the age of four. She took up tennis when she was five years old and turned professional in 2002. She made to her highest position in the world ranking, 28th, in February 2012. She won three WTA single tournaments, in 2013 in Florianopolis, Brasil, in 2014 in Guangzhou, China, and in 2016 in Luxembourg.


    Her performances in the doubles competitions were even more notable as she reaped 10 WTA titles starting the year 2009, when she emerged as winner in Budapest together with Russian Alisa Kleybanova. She got the highest position in the WTA doubles ranking in April 2018 when she went eleventh.


    She started off on the right foot in 2023 with a qualification in the quarter finals of the Hobart tournament together with Alicia Barnett of Britain. Then she teamed up with Viktorija Golubic of Switzerland to make it to the round of 16th of the Australian Open. She is presently ranking 43rd in the world doubles ranking.


    (bill)


  • Athlete of the week

    Athlete of the week

    Nur-Sultan, in Kazakhstan, hosted last week a WTA tournament with prize money totaling 238,000 USD. The competition is called Astana Open, after the former name of Kazakhstans capital city, which was changed by the national parliament in 2019.



    This year, the doubles event was won by the Romanian Monica Niculescu and the German Anna-Lena Friedsam. For this result, Radio Romania International nominates Monica as Athlete of the Week.



    In Astana Open, Niculescu and Friedsam defeated in the first round host country representatives Sofiya Chursina and Ekaterina Dmitricenko, 6-2, 7-5. In the quarter-finals, they outplayed the Ukrainian Valeria Strahova and Russian Ekaterina Yashina, 6-1, 6-1. Then came a victory in the semifinals, 6-4, 3-6, 10-8 against the Russians Vitalia Diatchenko and Yana Sizikova. In the final, Monica Niculescu and Anna-Lena Friedsam defeated 2 other Russian players, Angelina Gabueva and Anastasia Zaharova, 6-2, 4-6, 10-5. For the title in Nur-Sultan, Niculescu and Friedsam received 10,300 USD and 280 WTA points.



    Monica Niculescu was born in Slatina, on September 25, 1987. She has been living in Bucharest since her early childhood, took up tennis at the age of 5 and has been a professional player since 2002. She has so far won 3 singles and 10 doubles tournaments, and she earned over 6.5 million US dollars throughout her career.



    Her best position in the worlds singles ranking was 28th, in February 2012, while in the doubles ranking her best performance was an 11th place in the world in April 2018. She is now ranked 219th in the singles and 38th in the doubles.

  • Athlete of the week

    Athlete of the week

    Nur-Sultan, in Kazakhstan, hosted last week a WTA tournament with prize money totaling 238,000 USD. The competition is called Astana Open, after the former name of Kazakhstans capital city, which was changed by the national parliament in 2019.



    This year, the doubles event was won by the Romanian Monica Niculescu and the German Anna-Lena Friedsam. For this result, Radio Romania International nominates Monica as Athlete of the Week.



    In Astana Open, Niculescu and Friedsam defeated in the first round host country representatives Sofiya Chursina and Ekaterina Dmitricenko, 6-2, 7-5. In the quarter-finals, they outplayed the Ukrainian Valeria Strahova and Russian Ekaterina Yashina, 6-1, 6-1. Then came a victory in the semifinals, 6-4, 3-6, 10-8 against the Russians Vitalia Diatchenko and Yana Sizikova. In the final, Monica Niculescu and Anna-Lena Friedsam defeated 2 other Russian players, Angelina Gabueva and Anastasia Zaharova, 6-2, 4-6, 10-5. For the title in Nur-Sultan, Niculescu and Friedsam received 10,300 USD and 280 WTA points.



    Monica Niculescu was born in Slatina, on September 25, 1987. She has been living in Bucharest since her early childhood, took up tennis at the age of 5 and has been a professional player since 2002. She has so far won 3 singles and 10 doubles tournaments, and she earned over 6.5 million US dollars throughout her career.



    Her best position in the worlds singles ranking was 28th, in February 2012, while in the doubles ranking her best performance was an 11th place in the world in April 2018. She is now ranked 219th in the singles and 38th in the doubles.

  • Athlete of the Week

    Athlete of the Week

    Until Sunday,
    Russia’s Capital Moscow is hosting the European Weightlifting Championships, a
    competition attended by 9 athletes from Romania, 7 in the women’s contest and 2
    in the men’s. Since the beginning of the competition, the Romanian delegation
    has already obtained 8 medals, three gold, four silver and one bronze. Monica
    Csengeri became gold medalist in the 49-kilogram category where another
    Romanian Mihaela Cambei obtained a silver medal in the clean and jerk and
    bronze in the total events.






    Adriana Pană
    also from Romania stepped onto the podium’s second step in the clean and jerk 45-kilogram
    event. In the men’s contest Valentin Iancu-Ionadi obtained two silver medals in
    the 55 kilograms clean and jerk and total. For the results she obtained in
    Moscow, Radio Romania International has designated Monica Csengeri Athlete of
    the Week.






    In Moscow Csengeri
    compelled international recognition with 86 kg in the snatch contest after two
    failed attempts at 90 kilograms. In the clean and jerk she won with a 103 kg
    lift and romped home in the total with 189 kg.






    Monica Csengeri was
    born on March 21st 1996 in Bistriţa (northern Romania) in a disadvantaged
    family. In spite of an unhappy childhood marred by dire poverty, Csengeri
    managed to shoot to fame in various international competitions at an early age.
    At only 15 she was the owner of several national records and won the world
    title in the under-21 competition held by Kosice in Slovakia.






    She won bronze
    in the jerk event of the European Weightlifting Championship in Tbilisi in 2015.
    A year later Csengeri stepped onto the first and the third steps of the podium
    in the snatch and total events of the European Championships in Norway. After
    testing positive for performance-enhancing drugs in December 2017 she got
    suspended by the International Weightlifting Federation until February 2019.
    She managed to get over this period and made a successful comeback to the
    European weightlifting elite.

  • Athlete of the Week

    Athlete of the Week

    Until Sunday,
    Russia’s Capital Moscow is hosting the European Weightlifting Championships, a
    competition attended by 9 athletes from Romania, 7 in the women’s contest and 2
    in the men’s. Since the beginning of the competition, the Romanian delegation
    has already obtained 8 medals, three gold, four silver and one bronze. Monica
    Csengeri became gold medalist in the 49-kilogram category where another
    Romanian Mihaela Cambei obtained a silver medal in the clean and jerk and
    bronze in the total events.






    Adriana Pană
    also from Romania stepped onto the podium’s second step in the clean and jerk 45-kilogram
    event. In the men’s contest Valentin Iancu-Ionadi obtained two silver medals in
    the 55 kilograms clean and jerk and total. For the results she obtained in
    Moscow, Radio Romania International has designated Monica Csengeri Athlete of
    the Week.






    In Moscow Csengeri
    compelled international recognition with 86 kg in the snatch contest after two
    failed attempts at 90 kilograms. In the clean and jerk she won with a 103 kg
    lift and romped home in the total with 189 kg.






    Monica Csengeri was
    born on March 21st 1996 in Bistriţa (northern Romania) in a disadvantaged
    family. In spite of an unhappy childhood marred by dire poverty, Csengeri
    managed to shoot to fame in various international competitions at an early age.
    At only 15 she was the owner of several national records and won the world
    title in the under-21 competition held by Kosice in Slovakia.






    She won bronze
    in the jerk event of the European Weightlifting Championship in Tbilisi in 2015.
    A year later Csengeri stepped onto the first and the third steps of the podium
    in the snatch and total events of the European Championships in Norway. After
    testing positive for performance-enhancing drugs in December 2017 she got
    suspended by the International Weightlifting Federation until February 2019.
    She managed to get over this period and made a successful comeback to the
    European weightlifting elite.