Elise Mertens was born on November 17, 1995, in Leuven, Belgium, to Liliane Barbe and Guido Mertens. She has an older sister named Lauren, who is an airline pilot and introduced the then-four-year-old Elise to tennis. Mertens looked up to compatriots Justine Henin and Kim Clijsters when she was growing up.
The Belgian had much success on the ITF Circuit until 2016. This allowed her to make a debut on the WTA Tour that year, including a maiden Grand Slam appearance at the US Open. However, Mertens made a major breakthrough in 2017.
She started the season in style by winning the Hobart International in January. Her run included a victory against the No. 1 seed Kiki Bertens in the quarterfinal and then a final triumph against Monica Niculescu.
2017 also saw Mertens reach a final in April on the clay courts of Istanbul, but it ended in defeat to Elina Svitolina. In addition, she won her first Grand Slam match at the Roland Garros. Mertens broke new ground at Grand Slam level in 2018 by reaching the semifinals of the Australian Open.
Wins against Viktoria Hruncakova, Daria Saville, Alize Cornet, Petra Martic, and Elina Svitolina took her to that stage. She lost the semifinal 3-6, 6-7 to Caroline Wozniacki. The Belgian also managed three excellent WTA titles in 2018. These were at the Hobart International again, the Ladies Open Lugano, and the Grand Prix Lalla Meryem. She ended the season at No. 13 in the rankings.
In 2020, Mertens progressed to the semifinal of a WTA 1000 event for the first time in Cincinnati. She was denied a spot in the final by Naomi Osaka. A few weeks later, the Belgian made a second consecutive quarterfinal at the US Open, which ended with a heavy defeat to Victoria Azarenka.
Mertens has remained very consistent since then. For instance, she has only failed to get past the first round of a Grand Slam once in her last 24 attempts and has made at least the fourth round 13 times.
That shows how little her level drops throughout the year. She won her eighth WTA title at the Tunisia Open in October 2023 and made her 13th WTA final in Hobart once again in January 2024.
