Elise Mertens started her 2019 tennis season with three losses from all three tournaments, But a huge turnaround came on 16th February after Unseeded Elise Mertens claimed the biggest title of her career by earning three Top 10 wins in a row and beating top seed Simona Halep to win the Qatar Open.
13 months ago after reaching her first Grand Slam semifinal, she got into the top 20 ranking in the world, she said “I’m not going to say, top 20 is my goal. No, I hope to go even further.”
Mertens has won five singles and six doubles WTA titles as well as 24 ITF titles to date. She has a career-high singles ranking of world No. 12, achieved on 26 November 2018, and a best doubles ranking of No. 13, achieved on 8 October 2018.
A height achieved from her performances in January 2017, Mertens won the Hobart International, beating No. 3 seed Monica Niculescu in the final. As a result of this, she broke into the WTA top 100 for the first time. Mertens began the 2018 season by becoming the first woman to win back-to-back titles in Hobart, defending her title from 2017.
Mertens’ season continued with her main draw debut at the 2018 Australian Open, She advanced to her first Grand Slam quarterfinal. In the quarterfinal Mertens achieved her first victory over a top-five ranked player, defeating Elina Svitolina, again in straight sets. With her win over Svitolina, Mertens became the third Belgian woman to reach the last four at the tournament.
After her good form in Australia Mertens had some difficult weeks. She lost respectively in the first round of Doha, Dubai, and Indian Wells and in the second round in Miami. In April she reached her fourth singles final and won the title.
In 2019, Mertens got her first win and title after three failed tournaments, the title, her first WTA Premier-level crown and fifth title on the tour overall after nearly two-and-a-quarter hours win against Simona Halep.
“Consistency is one of the key things to be a top player…The belief in yourself, That anything is possible” in believing she fought from a set and a break down against the top seed and a former world no. 1 Simona Halep to celebrate a 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 in two hours and 13 minutes, winning first of their 3rd meeting.
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