The final was just a warm-up for Nikola

Nikola Bartůňková arrives in Rosmalen with something few 20-year-old players can boast about: five grass-court matches in her legs since Monday, a WTA 125 final played in Birmingham on Sunday against Alexandra Eala, and a personal grass record that would make players twice as experienced jealous. Twelve wins and two losses in her career on this surface, including this high-intensity week at the Edgbaston Priory Club: the Czech is no stranger to grass, she’s completely at home on it. Her 2026 season confirms a meteoric rise that began from 504th in the world a year ago, with a third round at the Australian Open, a round of 16 in Rome after beating Madison Keys, and now this grass-court final even before playing a single match in Hertogenbosch.

On the other side, Hanne Vandewinkel arrives with a solid 2026 record built on the ITF hard and clay circuits, but with zero career wins on grass at the professional level before this week. Her first-round loss in Birmingham to Day and her qualifying win over Barthel make up the entirety of her grass-court experience. Her 3–7 record over her last ten matches and her 3–5 against top-100 players over the past 52 weeks point to a player who structurally struggles when the level rises, which is exactly what will happen this Monday against a Bartůňková for whom grass has, in the space of a week, become a genuinely comfortable surface.