Early years: 2000–2005 In 2000, Minella debuted for the
Luxembourg Fed Cup team, partnering Celine Francois in the doubles matches against the teams of
Ukraine and
Great Britain, losing both times. After again participating in Fed Cup in 2001 (where she won her first rubber), she began competing on the
ITF Women's Circuit in the same year. In 2002, she received a qualifying wildcard into the
WTA Tour Tier III
Luxembourg Open, losing the first round. She reached her first ITF singles final in 2003, losing to
Liana-Gabriela Balaci in three sets. 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.
2014: Injuries and inconsistency In 2014, Minella started the year at the
Brisbane International where she lost to
Heather Watson in the first round of qualifying, but reached the semifinals in the doubles event partnering
Chanelle Scheepers. Then, at the
Sydney International, Minella suffered a second successive qualifying loss at the first qualifying stage, this time at the hands of Ukrainian
Lesia Tsurenko. 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.
2015: Continued inconsistency In 2015, Minella went to
Melbourne in mid-December to prepare early for the season. She started in
Auckland where she won two matches in qualifying over
Barbora Krejčíková and
Sharon Fichman, before falling at the last hurdle to
Anna Tatishvili. She also had no luck in the doubles event with Barthel, losing in the first round. Minella then headed to the
Australian Open, but lost in the first qualifying round to
Paula Ormaechea. She fared better in the doubles event with Barthel, they reached the second round. Minella then went on to reach the quarterfinals at the
Burnie International, falling to eventual champion
Daria Gavrilova. In her next tournaments, she suffered early losses in qualifying of WTA events and in main draws of ITF events. 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.
2016 In 2016, Minella started the year poorly, including a string of first-round losses in
Auckland,
Melbourne and Launceston. At the
Taiwan Open in Kaohsiung, she managed to score another WTA main-draw win, defeating
Naomi Osaka in the first round before falling to local favourite
Hsieh Su-wei. However, Minella bowed out in the first or second round of her next four events which included both ITF and WTA tournaments. In
Fed Cup, she began to turn the tide, boasting an unbeaten record in Europe/Africa Zone Group III, helping
Luxembourg gain promotion to Group II in 2017 alongside teammates
Claudine Schaul,
Eléonora Molinaro and Merima Mujasevic. 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. ==Personal life==