But the question we can ask ourselves is how Elise Mertens managed to achieve such a performance since 2017 and her first third round against Venus Williams at Roland-Garros. The answer revolves around several axes.
His level of play
Since her semi-final in 2018 in Melbourne against Caroline Wozniacki, the Belgian number one has experienced very few difficult periods or serious injuries. Her tennis has always been in good shape and the latter, who was not the most gifted player of her generation, has always worked enormously to progress. During his first steps in the pros, his game plan essentially revolved around very defensive tennis. “That’s what I called my plan A.”Elise explained regularly. Aware that this very energy-consuming tactic would not hold up over time and would become obsolete in the face of increasingly aggressive tennis, our compatriot (30 years old) learned to advance further on the court to put pressure on his opponents. What she still called her “plan B” a few years ago has become, also thanks to a more efficient serve, her plan A. And her numerous doubles matches have taught her to be comfortable at the net.
His seeded status
Stakhanovist of the courts, Elise Mertens plays a lot, both because she needs it but also to stay in the top 30 in the world. A ranking which allows her to be seeded at the Grand Slams and to avoid the tenors of the WTA during the first two rounds. Obviously, there were small hiccups like against Loïs Boisson during the last Roland-Garros, but they can be counted on the fingers of one hand. And if surprises, especially bad ones, are less recurrent among women than among men, this can be explained in particular by the physical dimension of the matches which do not change at the WTA between the regular season and the Grand Slams.
Elise Mertens’ next objective will be to play in the round of 16, dominating the surprising Czech Nikola Bartunkova (WTA 126).
No news from David Goffin…
