WTA125 Birmingham: Linda Fruhvirtova vs Greet Minnen final analysis
Double the work for Minnen on Sunday but also the fun of claiming her biggest singles title to date
The Edgbaston Priory Club hosted the WTA 125 Lexus Birmingham Open to kick off a new-look grass court season. Calendar innovations ignored by an old British acquaintant — the rain — which paid its traditional visit and pushed most of the bottom-half semifinal between 5-seed Greet Minnen (WTA #77) and Rebeka Masarova (WTA #121) to Sunday.
When Masarova reached match point at 7:6 in the second set tie-break, odds didn’t favour Minnen to be the one forced to double duty on championship day. But the 27-year old Belgian saved it and went on to complete a 3-6, 7-6 [9:7], 7-6 [7:5] comeback win.
A new lease of life that Minnen rode magnificently to end her recent misery in finals: she was 0-5 in title deciders since May 2023, including 0-2 in her first career finals at WTA 125 level — Saint-Malo and Kozerski, both during the 2023 season.
But none of those failures weighed on Minnen as she stepped on court to play the Birmingham final. Instead, the Belgian put on a spectacular performance and clinched her biggest singles title to date with a quick 6-2, 6-1 triumph over 20-year old Czech Linda Fruhvirtova (WTA #152), the older of the tennis pro sisters.
Final match stats clearly demonstrate how much more zip Minnen’s shots carried. She produced 15 more winners (26 to 11) and extracted 13 more forced errors from Fruhvirtova (18 to 5).
Most of the damage was inflicted by Minnen’s forehand, the undisputed shot of the match.
📺 source: WTA Unlocked
As you can also deduce from some of the points shown above, Minnen’s backhand provided a great complement, setting up a number of those forehand heaters as well as keeping rallies alive by absorving Fruhvirtova’s pace when the Czech tried to take charge.
By match’s end, Minnen totalled 18 winners and 6 forceful shots with only 14 errors from the forehand wing, for a superb +10 differential and a substantial 27-point advantage in relation to Fruhvirtova’s -17 performance from the same side.
Forehand Performances
Fruhvirtova: 2 winners + 2 forcing / 21 errors = -17
Minnen: 18 winners + 6 forcing / 14 errors = +10
The gap between backhand performances wasn’t as large. Still, Minnen managed to end with a positive differential (+3) and be 7 points superior.
Backhand Performances
Fruhvirtova: 6 winners / 10 errors = -4
Minnen: 5 winners + 5 forcing / 7 errors = +3
Forehand or backhand, backcourt or forecourt, Minnen dominated all facets of the game.
The Belgian finished with a 30-18 edge in baseline duels and was victorious in 60% (31 of 52) of points she played from the back.
In addition, the eventual champion won 14 of 17 advances to the net, corresponding to an unbeatable 82% win-rate.
→ Here are some of Minnen’s winners at the net
Ultimately, Minnen’s championship-winning formula was to use a couple of shots to put her forehand in the driver’s seat, then go for the kill from the baseline or create a short ball to finish at the net.
It was so well executed that Minnen won 33 of 47 (70%) points that reached a 5th shot.
Linda Fruhvirtova (WTA #152) vs Greet Minnen (WTA #77, seed 5)
2025 Birmingham final - Match Data
Set by Set Stats
Strokes Breakdown
Winners and Errors (returns & rally shots)
Direction of winning shots and unforced errors (only groundstrokes)
Serve and Return
1st Serves
2nd Serves
Return & rallying performance
Rally length
Points won breakdown
This final section gives a last, broader look at the match by presenting how each player won points. Points are listed according to their frequency (highest to lowest) and are named in relation to the last touch on the ball. For simplicity, groundstrokes hit from the 5th shot onwards are grouped together.
Breakdown by side (FHs or BHs)
Breakdown by error type (UFEs or FEs)
To find out more about the stats published here, please visit the following post.
While we follow the same criteria used on all major tennis events, our stats are collected through our own video analysis and are not official WTA or ITF stats.
Thanks for reading!
— Tennis Inside Numbers
Greet is such a good player. She really has it to be ranked way higher. Good that she could win some close matches here: her confidence needs it. Also, such a nice person!