2nd round in 2024
Brenda Fruhvirtova
Best WTA ranking 87
- Country Czech Republic
- Age 17 years
- Size 1.7 m
- Jeu Right-handed, two-handed backhand
Special feature: Winner of the Petits As in doubles (in 2019) at the age of 11 and in singles (in 2020) at the age of 12.
Profile & career
Just as Venus Williams said about Serena, Linda Fruhvirtova has often said that her little sister, Brenda, would be stronger than her. History has yet to be written for Patrick Mouratoglou‘s protégés, but the fact remains that ‘little’ Brenda is scrupulously following in her elder sister’s footsteps, to the point where she succeeded her in the Petits As, the unofficial under-14 World Championship, in 2020, at the age of 12. In fact, the Fruhvirtovas are the only two sisters to have won the Petits As in the history of the prestigious Tarbes tournament, which brings together the world’s best in the 14 and under category.
Since then, Brenda has also enjoyed a brilliant junior career and made a perfect start to her professional career, with an impressive collection of ITF tournament trophies (15) and a place in the top 100 in 2024 (87th at her best), the year of her first Grand Slam victories. At 17, the best is yet to come…
Member of the Mouratoglou Academy since 2017.
BRENDA'S TRACK RECORD
Junior career: 7 ITF titles, world no. 3
Brenda Fruhvirtova was quick to turn to the professional circuit, but she nonetheless won five ITF titles in the category, including three Grade 1 titles in 2021, which enabled her to reach No 3 in the world. At the end of 2021, she played her older sister Linda in three consecutive tournaments, beating her once in the final of the Grade 1 in Merida, before leading her country to victory in the Billie Jean King Cup juniors a few weeks later.
WTA career: A trial run, a master stroke
A precocious phenomenon, Brenda Fruhvirtova made her mark in July 2020 by beating her compatriot Katerina Siniakova, then ranked 54th in the world (7-6, 6-1), aged just 13 and six months after triumphing at the Petits As. Admittedly, it was only an exhibition, but the young Czech struck another major blow a year later: on 21 December 2021, her very first match on the pro circuit, at the 125 tournament in Seoul to which she had been invited, ended in victory over Korea’s Jeong Moon. At the age of 14.
Despite this breakthrough, Brenda first cut her teeth on the ITF circuit, where she wreaked havoc by winning 15 titles. The very first of these, in Tucuman at the start of 2022, was won under the watchful eye of Gabriela Sabatini and made her one of only 21 players in the last 25 years to win a pro title at just 14 years of age. Brenda doubled her tally by winning another ITF tournament in Tucuman in the process, something no other player that young had ever done. And just after that, Brenda qualified for her first main tour tournament in Guadalajara by beating Sara Errani, becoming the youngest player to do so since Madison Keys in 2009.
After a brilliant 2022 season (51 wins and nine defeats), it was in 2023 that Brenda Fruhvirtova made her entry into the world’s tennis elite by becoming, at 15, the fifth youngest player to qualify for the Australian Open. A year later, in 2024, she scored her first Grand Slam successes (again in Australia, then at Wimbledon), but also in the WTA 1000 events (Miami then Rome) to break into the top 100, at No. 87 in the world, reached in July. All at the age of 17.
UTS career
Brenda Fruhvirtova took part in the only women’s UTS tournament organised to date, in 2020, aged just 13. Nicknamed the Prodigy, she lost three quarters to Alizé Cornet.
BRENDA & THE GRAND SLAMS
It was at the Australian Open in 2024 that the youngest of the Fruhvirtova sisters achieved her first Grand Slam success, beating Ana Bogdan in the first round before coming up against eventual winner Aryna Sabalenka. A few months later, Brenda repeated the feat at Wimbledon, beating one of her great rivals from the ‘class of 2007’, Mirra Andreeva (seeded no. 24), to record the greatest victory of her young career.
Statistics & records
- 2nd youngest winner of the Petits As
- 14 Record number of ITF titles won before her 17th birthday
- 2022 youngest player in the top 250
- 14 the age at which she qualified for a main circuit tournament
- 2022 First 14-year-old to win back-to-back ITF titles
Link with the Mouratoglou Academy
Brenda Fruhvirtova has spent almost all of her training at the Mouratoglou Academy, having joined in 2017 with her sister Linda, when she was just 10 years old. Taken in hand by Mathis di Maio, technical coordinator of ChampSeed, the foundation dedicated to young talent, she enjoyed the greatest successes of her budding career in the bosom of the academy, which she still attends regularly.
“You should believe in her, you won’t regret it”, tweeted Patrick Mouratoglou at the beginning of 2022 (just after her first historic ITF title in Tucuman), with whom Brenda has worked a lot on her forehand.
GAME & EQUIPMENT
Her game:
Compared to her older sister Linda, Brenda Fruhvirtova plays a different kind of tennis, more hard-hitting, more aggressive, more in search of the KO from the baseline. But with a common weapon: a backhand of near-perfect fluidity, which she doesn’t hesitate to pull opponents off-court. With her punchy tennis, you’d think Brenda was suited to fast surfaces, but it’s on clay that she’s hit hardest, winning 14 of her 15 ITF titles and 46 of her 51 victories in 2022. She went on to demonstrate the versatility that is the hallmark of talented players.
Equipment:
Linda plays with a Wilson Blade 16×19 racket, Luxilon Big Banger Alu Power string.
Personal Life
& Interests
Like her sister Linda, to whom she is very close, Brenda was trained by her father, Hynek Fruhvirt, at Sparta Prague, the famous club in the Czech capital where Thomas Berdych, the Pliskova sisters and Radek Stepanek, among others, also played. As well as tennis, she loves music, travelling, which she often features on social networks, and reading, particularly novels and self-help books. She also enjoys surfing, both on the sea and in the snow.