Elise Mertens has won the Libéma Open in Rosmalen on Sunday. The Belgian fought back from a deficit in the final against the Romanian Gabriela Ruse and won in two sets on the Brabantse grass: 6-3 and 7-6 (4).
Mertens had survived no less than eleven match points against the Russian Ekaterina Alexandrova in the semi-finals on Saturday. The world number 25 completed one of the biggest comebacks of this century at a WTA tournament.
It didn’t go that far in the final on Sunday, but Mertens had to chase again. She came to a 1-3 deficit in the opening set against Ruse, who is eightieth in the world ranking. Yet the third-seeded Mertens won the first set thanks to five games in a row. Ruse was struggling with an injury to her right leg, which she had treated after the first set.
In the second set, Mertens and Ruse were evenly matched for a long time. Mertens placed a break in the seventh game, but Ruse erased it and even got two set points. Mertens in turn reversed them. She was in a class of her own in the decisive tiebreak.
For the 29-year-old Mertens, it is the tenth tournament victory in her career. With the final victory in Rosmalen, she follows in the footsteps of her legendary compatriots Kim Clijsters (2003) and Justine Henin (2001 and 2010). Last year the Russian Liudmila Samsonova won the tournament.
The men’s final is scheduled later in the day and a Belgian can also win there. Zizou Bergs is in the final against the Canadian Gabriel Diallo. The top-seeded Daniil Medvedev was eliminated in the quarter-finals by Reilly Opelka.
The Libéma Open serves as a preparatory tournament for Wimbledon, which starts in London in two weeks. Among others, Griekspoor, De Jong, Botic van de Zandschulp, Lamens and Arantxa Rus have qualified directly for the main tournament.