Elise Mertens

Elise Mertens is a professional tennis player from Belgium. She reached a career-high singles ranking of World No. 12 in November 2018 and became World No. 1 in doubles in May 2021. Mertens is a four-time Grand Slam doubles champion, a nine-time WTA singles titlist, and a WTA Finals doubles champion.

Player Profile and Personal Life

Elise Mertens was born on November 17, 1995 in Leuven, Belgium, to Liliane Barbe, a teacher, and Guido Mertens, a furniture maker. She stands 179 cm tall and is right-handed with a two-handed backhand. She is coached by Christopher Heyman. Since turning pro, she has earned over US$16 million in prize money.

Mertens was home-schooled and is fluent in French, English, and Flemish Dutch. Her older sister, Lauren, an airline pilot, introduced her to tennis at age four. She looked up to Justine Henin and Kim Clijsters and trained at the Kim Clijsters Academy from 2015 until its closure in 2022.

Career

Mertens turned professional in 2013 and made her WTA main-draw debut in doubles at the 2015 Copa Colsanitas. She won her first WTA doubles title at the 2016 Auckland Open and her first WTA singles title at the 2017 Hobart International as a qualifier. This victory propelled her into the Top 100.

In 2018, Mertens reached the semifinals at the Australian Open and won singles titles in Hobart, Rabat, and Lugano. She continued her rise with a singles title in Doha in 2019 and quarterfinal runs at the US Open in 2019 and 2020. In doubles, she won her first Grand Slam title at the 2019 US Open with Aryna Sabalenka and completed the Sunshine Double with Sabalenka that year.

Mertens became World No. 1 in doubles in May 2021 after winning the Australian Open and Wimbledon with Sabalenka and Hsieh Su-wei, respectively. She won the WTA Finals in doubles in 2022 with Veronika Kudermetova. Mertens has also been a regular member of the Belgian Billie Jean King Cup team.

In 2023, she won her eighth singles title at the Jasmin Open in Monastir and finished as runner-up in doubles at Wimbledon and the WTA Finals. In 2024, she won her fourth Grand Slam doubles title at the Australian Open with Hsieh Su-wei and added titles at Indian Wells and Birmingham.

In 2025, she won her ninth WTA singles title at the Singapore Open and was runner-up in singles at Hobart and in doubles at the Madrid Open.

Career Record

Singles

• Career record: 456–264
• Career titles: 9
• Highest ranking: No. 12 (November 26, 2018)
• Current ranking: No. 31 (May 3, 2025)

Best Grand Slam Singles Performances

• Australian Open – SF (2018)
• French Open – 4R (2018, 2022, 2023)
• Wimbledon – 4R (2019, 2022)
• US Open – QF (2019, 2020)

Other tournaments

• Olympic Games – 1R (2021)

Doubles

• Career record: 374–158
• Career titles: 21
• Highest ranking: No. 1 (May 10, 2021)
• Current ranking: No. 22 (May 3, 2025)

Best Grand Slam Doubles Performances

• Australian Open – W (2021, 2024)
• French Open – SF (2019)
• Wimbledon – W (2021)
• US Open – W (2019)

Other tournaments

• Tour Finals – W (2022)
• Olympic Games – 1R (2021)

Team competitions

• Fed Cup – QF (2018, 2019), record 13–7
• Hopman Cup – RR (2018)