Elise Mertens
About
Born in Leuven, Belgium on November 17, 1995, Elise Mertens turned professional in 2013. Her breakthrough came in 2017 with her first WTA singles title at the Hobart International, entering the top 100. She reached a career-high singles ranking of No. 12 in 2018 after a major semifinal at the Australian Open and three titles that year. A doubles specialist, she became world No. 1 in doubles in 2021 and has won 24 doubles titles, including six Grand Slams. In 2026, she won the Australian Open doubles with Shuai Zhang, reached the singles fourth round there, and holds a singles ranking of world No. 21 as of April, with a 9-4 record.
Recent form
In the news
““We kept on fighting, we kept on believing, and we really grew as a team. Today, in the final, I'm happy that I served it out.””
Playing style
Elise Mertens is a baseline counterpuncher who blends solid defense with aggressive flat groundstrokes, excelling at redirecting pace with her stronger backhand down the line. Her fitness and court coverage allow her to extend rallies and turn defense into offense effectively, making her dangerous in prolonged exchanges. Strong return game neutralizes big serves, complemented by net skills from doubles success, though prone to unforced errors when pushing for winners.
Surface splits
Career surface splits.
Serve & return fingerprint
2 matches of statistics in the last 7 days. Aces/match: 3 · DFs/match: 0.5
- 1st serve in
- 72.5%
- 1st-serve points won
- 70.0%
- 2nd-serve points won
- 55.0%
- Return on 1st
- 43.0%
- Return on 2nd
- 53.0%
Big-match temperament
Notable rivalries
Rivalry network
Most-played opponents inside our 7-day rolling window.
Career snapshot
| Season | Year-end rank | W–L | Titles |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | 36 | 43–25 | 1 |
| 2018 | 12 | 48–22 | 3 |
| 2019 | 17 | 35–27 | 1 |
| 2020 | 20 | 32–14 | 0 |
| 2021 | 21 | 35–19 | 1 |
| 2022 | 29 | 29–23 | 1 |
| 2023 | 29 | 32–22 | 1 |
| 2024 | 34 | 27–25 | 0 |
| 2025 | 20 | 36–20 | 2 |
| 2026 | 19 | 3–1 | 0 |
Team and equipment
- Head coach
- Christopher Heyman
- Height
- 182 cm
- Plays
- Right-handed
- Backhand
- Two-handed
- Racquet
- Yonex EZONE
- Apparel
- Yonex
Career highlights
- Australian Open doubles winner 2026 (w/Zhang)
- Wimbledon doubles winner 2025 (w/Kudermetova)
- Australian Open doubles winner 2024 (w/Hsieh)
- US Open doubles winner 2019 (w/Sabalenka)
- Career-high singles No. 12 (2018)
- 10 WTA singles titles
- 24 WTA doubles titles
- Australian Open singles SF 2018
Where to follow
Live scores when Mertens is on court appear on our tennis today and live streaming pages. The full WTA top-100 sits at our live WTA rankings. Compare Mertens on the player statistical deep dive.
Head-to-head vs Aryna Sabalenka →