Ana Ivanovic won the first grass court title in the Aegon Classic. Birmingham 15 june 2014

Ana Ivanovic captured her first grass court title - and her biggest WTA title since winning the French Open - at the Premier-level Aegon Classic in Birmingham.

Zahlavova Strycova was definitely the Cinderella story of the tournament. Having never even made it to the quarterfinals of a Premier-level event, she made it all the way to her first Premier final on the lawns of the Edgbaston Priory Club, and as an unseeded player as well, taking out a trio of seeds - No.5 seed Lucie Safarova, No.4 seed Kirsten Flipkens and No.15 seed Casey Dellacqua - along the way. But the No.1-seeded Ivanovic was at another level than them. She didn't drop a set en route to the final - she wasn't even pushed past 6-4 in any set - and there was an extra incentive for her, never having won a grass court title on the WTA. She had never even been to a grass court final before. 

 And to top it all off, Ivanovic had won both of their previous meetings - comprehensively. And this one was no different. Zahlavova Strycova showed some encouraging signs early on, breaking serve in the first game of the match and then going up 30-15 on her first service game, but Ivanovic wouldn't have any of it, winning the next four games in a row to build a 4-1 opening set lead. The two kept trading holds from there until Ivanovic pocketed the set, 6-3, and after Zahlavova Strycova held serve in the opening game of the second set the Serb went on another streak, reeling off five games in a row to go up 5-1. She would eventually serve the match out at love, 6-3, 6-2. Both players played a pretty clean match - an hour and 17 minutes, 19 unforced errors each - but it was Ivanovic whose aggressive game produced most of the winners, almost twice as many as her opponent in fact, 22 to 12. And those 22 winners came from all wings - not just her legendary forehand. Beyond the match numbers, the biggest stat is that Ivanovic collected her first grass court title. It was her 14th overall WTA title, with 11 coming on hardcourts, two on clay and now one on grass. It was also her biggest title since winning the French Open in 2008 - she had won six other WTA titles between then and now, but they were all at Internationals or at Premiers with less total prize money.