Mandy Minella

 ( 1985 Births ) 

In the qualifying draw for the US Open, Minella won all three matches and lost just one set. In her first appearance in the main draw of a Grand Slam tournament, she beat world No. 47, Polona Hercog to advance to the second round. She continued her good performance by defeating world No. 34 and Wimbledon semifinalist, Tsvetana Pironkova. In the third round, however, she lost to world No. 4, Venus Williams.

Minella went on to play the Mexican Open but lost to Sílvia Soler Espinosa in the first round. She then lost out to Olga Govortsova at Indian Wells in a tight three-setter. At Miami, Minella fell in qualifying to junior player Kateřina Siniaková. In the doubles event, she played with Babos once more, with the pair putting up a fight against the top seeds Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci, in the second round, but it wasn't enough to advance. Minella then suffered another first-round loss at Charleston, to Camila Giorgi. At the Katowice Open, she defeated Vesna Dolonc in the first round before falling to the first seed Petra Kvitová. Minella then went on to play the Marrakech Grand Prix and defeated Estrella Cabeza Candela in the first round, fourth seed Kaia Kanepi in the second, and Soler Espinosa in the quarterfinals. She lost her semifinal match to Lourdes Domínguez Lino but won the doubles event with Tímea Babos.

Continuing her season playing an ITF tournament in France, Minella lost to Cabeza Candela in the quarterfinals. She played the French Open, suffering first-round losses in singles, doubles and mixed doubles. Minella then had a string of first-round losses, including at the Wimbledon Championships to the world No. 1, Serena Williams. At the US Open, she lost to Sloane Stephens in the final set tiebreak, having been up a break in the third set.

Due to not being able to defend her third round points from the 2012 US Open, Minella's rank dropped to 132. Her next tournament would be the Tashkent Open, where she reached the semifinals in singles and was runner-up, partnering Govortsova, in doubles.

Minella then suffered early losses in multiple tournaments including losses to Estrella Cabeza Candela, Casey Dellacqua, Belinda Bencic and Caroline Wozniacki. She then went on to play at the ITF Poitiers where she defeated Donna Vekić in the first round, only to lose to eventual tournament champion, Aliaksandra Sasnovich, in the second.

Minella's last two tournaments were to be in North America. She played the Tevlin Women's Challenger defeating Élisabeth Fournier and Julia Boserup easily before falling to eventual champion, Victoria Duval, in the quarterfinals. She then went to her last tournament of the year at the South Seas Island Resort Women's Pro Classic, defeating Hsu Chieh-yu, Allie Will, Boserup and Allie Kiick to reach the final in which she played Gabriela Dabrowski, defeating her in straight sets.

In 2013, Minella won three matches 6–0, 6–0; against Kamilla Farhad, Julia Boserup and Allie Kiick.

Minella scored her first win of the season at the Australian Open where she defeated German qualifier Carina Witthöft in straight sets, scoring her first win at a Grand Slam championship outside of the US Open, but her run was not to go further as she fell in the second round to 29th seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.

Minella then was forced to withdraw from the events in Paris, Rio and Acapulco, as well as the Fed Cup due to an edema in her right arm, in which she had experienced pain whilst playing in Australia. She made her comeback at the Indian Wells Open, losing to Allie Klick in the first round of qualifying. She lost again at the first qualifying stage a fortnight later in Miami.

Minella had to take a couple of weeks off again due to the edema and hoped to be back in Marrakech for the Morocco Open, but sat out a further week before playing at the $25k Wiesbaden Open in Germany, losing in the first round of singles, but making the final in doubles with Julia Glushko. The pair lost in straight sets to Viktorija Golubic and Diāna Marcinkēviča.

Minella encountered further first-round losses at Cagnes-sur-Mer, Prague, the French Open and Marseille. She then won the $25k in Essen (Bredeney) defeating Richèl Hogenkamp in the final. Although the success on clay did not translate to success on grass as she encountered another first-round loss in qualifying at Wimbledon to Shelby Rogers. Minella then went on to have success on the ITF Circuit reaching the semifinals of a $25k event in Stuttgart, reaching the quarterfinals at the Lorraine Open 88 and the semifinals at Biarritz.

But the success did not translate towards the WTA Tour, suffering first-round losses at the İstanbul Cup and the Jiangxi International Open. Minella then went to play the US Open suffering a first-round loss to Kateryna Kozlova in the first qualifying round. She had scheduled to play doubles at the US Open with Camila Giorgi, but later withdrew.

Minella started her Asian tour at the Tashkent Open where she was defending semifinal points but she failed to do so, losing in the first round to Donna Vekić. The next stop was at Seoul where she qualified for the main draw, defeating Choi Ji-hee, Hong Seung-yeon and Hsu Chieh-yu, all in straight sets. In the main draw, she drew Belgian Yanina Wickmayer, but lost. In the doubles event, partnering with German Mona Barthel, she reached the final losing to Lara Arruabarrena and Irina-Camelia Begu.

Minella then continued to lose in qualifying rounds in Beijing and Linz, but also continued her success with Barthel in the doubles competitions in Wuhan, Beijing and Linz winning a round in each. Her year ended in her home tournament in Luxembourg where she faced Barthel in the first round and lost in straight sets. Minella stated that her edema in the right arm obtained in January had still been hurting her, finishing the year in October.

At the Bolívar Open, Minella won the doubles title partnering Lourdes Domínguez Lino, defeating Mariana Duque and Julia Glushko in the final. She qualified for the Colombia Open where she defeated Patricia Mayr-Achleitner in the first round before losing to Teliana Pereira. She continued her poor form in singles where she had a string of early losses in WTA and ITF draws as well as the mistake of forgetting to enter the French Open singles qualifying tournament. She, however, contested the doubles competition of the French Open, partnering Barthel, but they lost in the first round. At Wimbledon, Minella won her first career matches on grass, reaching the final qualifying round, defeating Amanda Carreras and Lourdes Domínguez Lino before losing to Laura Siegemund. Partnering Magda Linette, Minella qualified for the doubles competition, however the pair lost to Tímea Babos and Kristina Mladenovic in the first round. The poor form in Minella's 2015 season did continue, losing in the second round of the Lorraine Open 88, the first round of the Swedish Open and the Brasil Tennis Cup and in qualifying stages of the Vancouver Open.

It was the latter part of the year when Minella began to turn around, qualifying for the Tournoi de Québec, reaching the doubles final of the Internacional Femenil Monterrey and the quarterfinals of the Red Rock Pro Open. It was not until the Kirkland Challenger where Minella gained her confidence. She won the singles and doubles title of the Challenger, defeating players such as Sofia Arvidsson, Jovana Jakšić, Antonia Lottner, Jessica Pegula and Nicole Gibbs. In her second-round match against Jakšić, Minella was down 4–6, 0–5, and won the match 4–6, 7–5, 6–3, saving three match points. This was her second $50k title, her biggest to date. Next tournament was the Luxembourg Open where she received a main-draw wildcard into the singles event, however, she had no luck in her draw once again, losing to former world No. 1, Jelena Janković, in the first round. She had more success in the doubles competition, where she partnered Julie Coin, reaching the quarterfinals. Her last tournament of the season was to be the Open de Limoges. Despite losing in qualifying to Anna Blinkova, Minella entered into the main draw as lucky loser following Lesia Tsurenko's withdrawal. In the first round, she managed to defeat Stefanie Vögele. However, she then fell to former Roland Garros champion, Francesca Schiavone, in straight sets. But Minella finished season on a high, after winning the doubles competition, partnering Barbora Krejčíková. This marked her first triumph at a WTA 125 tournament.

Minella began her 2016 clay-court campaign at the Prague Open. However, she lost to Océane Dodin in the second qualifying round. A few more early losses in Cagnes-sur-Mer, Saint-Gaudens and Strasbourg had only given more worries as she had failed to win back-to-back singles matches, excluding Fed Cup, for the entire year. This was not to change at the French Open though, as she lost to Klára Koukalová in the second round of qualifying. The Bol Open, however, proved to be a lucky charm for Minella as she started to turn her year around. This event saw her win her first WTA singles title in which she boasted wins over current top and former top-100 players Evgeniya Rodina, Varvara Lepchenko, Marina Erakovic, Ana Konjuh and Polona Hercog.