Elise Mertens

Elise Mertens (born 17 November 1995) is a Belgian professional tennis player and the current world No.1 in doubles.

She reached world No. 1 for the first time in May 2021, the third Belgian to hold the top ranking in either singles or doubles after Kim Clijsters and Justine Henin.

While growing up, Mertens looked up to Justine Henin and Kim Clijsters, and was a member of the Kim Clijsters Academy, where she has been training from 2015 until it shut down in 2022.

Mertens was a doubles finalist at the ITF New Delhi, alongside Marina Melnikova.

She made her WTA Tour main-draw debut at the 2015 Copa Colsanitas in the doubles event, partnering Nastja Kolar.

She won her first WTA doubles title at the 2016 Auckland Open, partnering An-Sophie Mestach.

In January, Mertens won the Hobart International, beating Monica Niculescu in the final.

She has represented Belgium in the Billie Jean King Cup since 2017, and competed at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in both singles and doubles.

Mertens was born in Leuven, the second daughter of Liliane Barbe, a teacher, and Guido Mertens, who makes furniture for churches.

She was home-schooled and enjoyed studying languages, speaking French, English, and Flemish Dutch.

Her older sister, Lauren, is currently an airline pilot and introduced the then four-year-old Elise to tennis.

As a result of this she broke into the WTA top 100 for the first time, on 16 January 2017.

After missing the Australian Open qualifying due to her Hobart campaign, Mertens reached the first round of the St. Petersburg Trophy through qualifying, and lost to Kristina Mladenovic in straight sets.

She then competed at the Dubai Championships, where, as a qualifier, she beat Tsvetana Pironkova en route to the second round, where she lost to Agnieszka Radwańska.

Despite her loss, Mertens reached a new career-ranking of world No. 69.

She then lost in the first round of the Malaysian Open to Lesley Kerkhove.

After that, she failed to qualify to both Indian Wells and Miami Open, losing in the first round of qualifying to Sachia Vickery and Alison Van Uytvanck, respectively.

At the Ladies Open Biel Bienne, Mertens upset Monica Niculescu and beat Mona Barthel en route to the quarterfinals, losing to Anett Kontaveit.

Mertens began the season by becoming the first woman to win back-to-back titles in Hobart.

She defeated Mihaela Buzărnescu in the final, defending her title from 2017.

Along with Demi Schuurs, she also won the doubles title.

Mertens' season continued with her main-draw debut at the Australian Open.

She defeated qualifier Viktória Kužmová, Daria Gavrilova, Alizé Cornet and Petra Martić, all in straight sets, to advance 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, joining former ranking leaders Justine Henin and Kim Clijsters.

In the semifinals she lost to Caroline Wozniacki, in straight sets.

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 second of the year at the Lugano Open in Switzerland.

She won the title by beating Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka in straight sets.

Together with compatriot Kirsten Flipkens, she also won the doubles title.

Two weeks later, she also won the singles title at the Morocco Open by defeating Australian Ajla Tomljanović, in straight sets.

Mertens lost in the second round at Madrid to Simona Halep.

She reached the fourth round at the French Open, defeating Varvara Lepchenko, Heather Watson, and Daria Gavrilova before falling again to Halep, who won the title.

Mertens started off the grass-court season with first-round loss to qualifier Dalila Jakupović in Birmingham.

Mertens is also a successful singles player, and reached her first major semifinal at the 2018 Australian Open, followed by two US Open quarterfinals in 2019 and 2020.

Mertens achieved her career-high singles ranking of world No. 12 in November 2018, and has won eight WTA Tour titles, including two at the WTA 500 level.

Mertens is a four-time Major champion in doubles, having won the 2019 US Open and 2021 Australian Open partnering Aryna Sabalenka, and the 2021 Wimbledon Championships and 2024 Australian Open with Hsieh Su-wei.

She also finished runner-up at the 2022 Wimbledon Championships with Zhang Shuai and at the 2023 Wimbledon Championships with Storm Hunter.

Mertens has won 19 doubles titles on the WTA Tour, including the 2022 WTA Finals with Veronika Kudermetova, six at the WTA 1000 level, and finished runner-up at the 2021 WTA Finals alongside Hsieh.