Elise Mertens (; born 17 November 1995) is a Belgian professional tennis player. She became the world No. 1 in women's doubles on 10 May 2021, the third Belgian to hold a top ranking in either singles or doubles (after Kim Clijsters and Justine Henin). She has won 28 WTA Tour-level titles, comprising 10 in singles and 18 in doubles.
Mertens is a six-time major champion in doubles, having won the 2019 US Open and 2021 Australian Open partnering Aryna Sabalenka, the 2021 Wimbledon Championships and 2024 Australian Open with Hsieh Su-wei, the 2025 Wimbledon Championships with Veronika Kudermetova, and the 2026 Australian Open with Zhang Shuai. She also finished runner-up at the 2022 Wimbledon Championships with Zhang and at the 2023 Wimbledon Championships with Storm Hunter. Mertens has won 24 doubles titles overall, including the 2022 and 2025 WTA Finals titles with Veronika Kudermetova, six at the WTA 1000 level, and finished runner-up at the 2021 WTA Finals alongside Hsieh.
Mertens is also a successful singles player, and reached a major semifinal at the 2018 Australian Open, followed by two US Open quarterfinals in 2019 and 2020. In 2026, she reached the quarterfinals once more at Wimbledon. Mertens achieved her career-high singles ranking of world No. 12 in November 2018, and has won ten WTA Tour titles, including two at the WTA 500-level. She has represented Belgium in the Billie Jean King Cup since 2017, and competed at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in both singles and doubles.
Personal life 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. While growing up, Mertens looked up to Justine Henin and Kim Clijsters, and was a member of the Kim Clijsters Academy, where she had been training from 2015 until it shut down in 2022.
Career 2015-2016: WTA Tour debut
Mertens was a doubles finalist at the New Delhi Open, 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 career doubles title at the 2016 Auckland Open, partnering An-Sophie Mestach.
2017: First WTA Tour singles title and top 40 In January, Mertens won the Hobart International, beating Monica Niculescu in the final. 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 for either Indian Wells or 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.
2018: Masters doubles title, three singles titles
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 only the third Belgian woman ever 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. In Eastbourne, she lost in third round to Aryna Sabalenka. At Wimbledon, Mertens lost in third round to Dominika Cibulková.
In the American swing, Mertens reached the semifinals in San Jose as well as quarterfinals in Montreal and Cincinnati. In doubles, she ended runner-up in Cincinnati and won the final in Wuhan, partnering Demi Schuurs.
2019: Singles title, Sunshine Double & US Open doubles titles Mertens started in Brisbane with a first-round exit against Kiki Bertens, she lost the match in three sets. Then in Sydney, she got her first two wins of the season by defeating Katerina Siniaková and Anett Kontaveit before losing in the quarterfinals to Ashleigh Barty.
Defending semifinalist points from last year, she entered the Australian Open as the 12th seed. She won her first and second match in straight sets, losing to Madison Keys in the third round. Due to her early exit, her ranking fell to No. 21.
Mertens played Fed Cup in her homecountry for the first time. In the week after, she played the Qatar Ladies Open. She began unseeded at this tournament, but she won her first Premier title. On her route to the tournament win, she defeated Kiki Bertens, Angelique Kerber and Simona Halep. After her biggest career win to date, she ranked No. 16.
In March at Indian Wells, as the 16th seeded, she lost in the third round in another battle near three hours against 18th seed Wang Qiang. Although she lost early in singles, she won a big doubles title with Sabalenka at Indian Wells, defeating first seeds Barbora Krejčíková and Kateřina Siniaková in the final. Two weeks later, the pair won the Miami Open doubles title, completing the Sunshine Double. Mertens and Sabalenka became the fifth doubles pairing in history, and first since Martina Hingis and Sania Mirza in 2015, to complete the Sunshine Double in doubles. These titles took Mertens inside the top 10 in doubles for the first time.
Mertens had a rough start to the clay-court season, losing in the opening round of four of her first five tournaments (the exception being a quarterfinal appearance in Morocco where she was upset by the eventual tournament champion Maria Sakkari). At the French Open, Mertens beat Tamara Zidanšek and Diane Parry to advance to the third round, where she was beaten by Anastasija Sevastova in a three-hour 18-minute, three-set match despite winning the first set and holding five match points in the decider. Mertens and Sabalenka performed well in the doubles draw, losing to eventual champions Tímea Babos and Kristina Mladenovic in the semifinals.
Mertens performed much stronger in the grass-court season warmup events, making the quarterfinals in Mallorca and the third round in Eastbourne (in both tournaments she lost to the eventual champions Sofia Kenin and Karolína Plíšková, respectively). At Wimbledon, Mertens advanced to the fourth round for the first time, taking out Fiona Ferro, Monica Niculescu and Wang Qiang. However, she was upset by Barbora Strýcová. In doubles, Mertens and Sabalenka advanced to the quarterfinals, but they were defeated by eventual champions Strýcová and Hsieh Su-wei, the second consecutive major the pair lost to the team that won the tournament.
In the early summer hardcourt season, Mertens struggled to replicate her 2018 success, losing her opening round match in San Jose to Kristie Ahn and falling in the second round of Toronto and Cincinnati to Serena Williams and Elina Svitolina, respectively. At the US Open, she defeated Jil Teichmann, Kristýna Plíšková, Andrea Petkovic, and Kristie Ahn to reach her second Grand Slam singles quarterfinal. She lost to the eventual champion Bianca Andreescu. Playing doubles with Sabalenka, the pair defeated Victoria Azarenka and Ashleigh Barty in the final, winning their first Grand Slam doubles title both as a team. Following the tournament, she reached a new career-high doubles ranking of No. 2 in the world.
Mertens competed at the WTA Elite Trophy in singles, where she qualified for the second straight year. Drawn in the same group as her doubles partner Sabalenka, she was beaten in three close sets by the Belarusian before defeating Sakkari in three sets. Placing second in her round-robin group, she failed to advance to her semifinals (Sabalenka won the title). She next competed at the WTA Finals in Shenzhen, playing doubles. She finished the year ranked No. 17 in singles and No. 6 in the world in doubles.
2020: Two singles finals, US Open quarterfinals Mertens opened the year by reaching the quarterfinals in both Shenzhen, where she was beaten by Elena Rybakina, and Hobart, losing to Heather Watson. At the Australian Open, Mertens eased through to the fourth round with straight-set wins over Danka Kovinić, Watson and CiCi Bellis before being defeated by Simona Halep. In doubles, Mertens and Sabalenka reached the quarterfinals where they lost to Chan Hao-ching and Latisha Chan. After losing early in both Dubai and Doha, Mertens was next scheduled to play in Indian Wells, but the tournament was cancelled and the tour suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
When the tour resumed in August, Mertens lost her opening match in Palermo, but bounced back by reaching her first final of the year at the Prague Open. She then lost to Halep for the second time that year. At the Cincinnati Open, Mertens advanced to her first ever Premier 5 semifinal, where she was beaten by Naomi Osaka in straight sets.
At the 2020 US Open, Mertens opened her campaign by beating Laura Siegemund in straight sets, followed by two-set wins over Sara Sorribes Tormo and 18-year old Caty McNally. She then caused a huge upset by defeating Sofia Kenin in straight sets, making it to the quarterfinals of the US Open for the second consecutive year. However, she was thrashed in the quarterfinal by former world No. 1, Victoria Azarenka, winning just one game. Mertens and Sabalenka also played doubles together, where they were the defending champions. They were beaten in the quarterfinals by the eventual champions Siegemund and Zvonareva.
Mertens continued in good form throughout to the end of the year. She made quarterfinals at Rome, losing again to Karolina Plíšková in three sets. She lost in the third round of the French Open to Caroline Garcia. She then went to the Ostrava Open and defeated Amanda Anisimova and Karolína Muchová both in straight sets. She lost in a rematch against Azarenka. She and Aryna Sabalenka took the doubles title together. She finished the year with a final finish at Linz Open, losing to Sabalenka.
2021: Two major titles and world No. 1 in doubles, Olympics debut