Belgian Elise Mertens beat number 3 seed Monica Niculescu 6-3 6-1 at the Hobart International to clinch her maiden WTA title and break the top-100 in the WTA Ranking for the first time in her career. Mertens is projected to move up from world number 127 to reach a career-high of Number 82.
Mertens, who trains at the Kim Clijsters Academy, had to get through the qualifying round to book a spot in the Main Draw. Mertens enjoyed a breakthrough week in which she upset top seed Kiki Bertens en route to the final.
Mertens dropped nine of the first ten points in the first set. Niculescu got an early break to open up a 2-0 lead but Mertens broke serve in the third game on her fourth break point and from there took control of the match winning 12 of the next 14 games to wrap up the match in 1 hour and 16 minutes. Mertens got another break at 3-3. At 5-3 the Belgian earned three set points on return and broke serve with a backhand winner to seal the first set 6-3.
Niculescu fought back in the match at the start of the second set. Mertens managed to hold her serve in a crucial third game before breaking serve in the fourth game to open up a 3-1 lead. Mertens earned three break points in the sixth game and broke serve at love. She served for match and clinched the win on her second match point.
Niculescu suffered from an abdominal muscle injury during the match, but despite the defeat in the final she is projected to move up from number 40 to 32 in the WTA Ranking.
Thanks to the first title of her career Mertens is set to climb 40 spots in the WTA Ranking to break the top-100 in the WTA Ranking for the first time in her career.
Mertens is the third qualifier to win the Hobart International in the tournament’s 24 year-history following in the footsteps of Mona Barthel in 2007 and 2016 Roland Garros champion Garbine Muguruza in 2014.
“It’s amazing, a dream come true. I have no words to describe it. I was really glad I got the third game, so it was 2-1 instead of 3-0. I knew it could make a lot of difference but I kept calm and I went for i. I did not expect to win today. I was trying to keep mysself motivated and mentally strong because I know she can be really tough to play against. She is a tough player”, said Mertens.
