Six years ago Monica Niculescu made her deepest run at Wimbledon and reached the round of 16. This year, things look a little different for the Romanian, but she nevertheless managed three matches in a row at the grass-court major—albeit in qualifying—by taking out Ulrikke Eikeri, Asia Muhammad and Kristie Ahn to secure a main draw spot.
Niculescu was dealt a tough opener in No. 2 seed Aryna Sabalenka, but kicked off the affair by grabbing the first point of the match, which also happened to be Wimbledon's first main draw point in two years.
Even as she fell behind by a set in 29 minutes, Niculescu wasn't afraid to give anything a try and whipped out an underarm serve to get on the board in the second set.