With a broad smile on her face, brand-new champion Elise Mertens addressed the press at Lib\u00e9ma Open. ‘Today I felt some tension, but the rest of the week actually not at all,’ said the 29-year-old Belgian after her 6-3 7-6(4) victory over Elena-Gabriela Ruse in the final match.<\/p>
‘How many times do you get into a grass final? And then also here, which makes it more stressful. I was really looking forward to playing tennis today and am glad I survived those 11 match points yesterday,’ the Leuven native added, referring to her miraculous escape against two-time champion Ekaterina Alexandrova in the semifinals.<\/p>
Mertens now has 10 WTA titles behind her name. After top prizes on clay and hardcourt, this is a first on grass.<\/p>
‘There are not that many players who can win titles on all three surfaces. Surely this is a nice milestone at 29,’ acknowledged the former world number 12. ‘Moreover, to get into double figures in terms of titles and to take that tenth trophy in my backyard – in the Netherlands – makes it extra special.’<\/p>
Mertens also joined illustrious compatriots Justine Henin and Kim Clijsters, who were also crowned champions on the Brabant grass in the long tournament history.<\/p>
‘Great to join the ranks with Kim and Justine. I am very happy with my performance.’<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
With a broad smile on her face, brand-new champion Elise Mertens addressed the press at Lib\u00e9ma Open. ‘Today I felt some tension, but the rest of the week actually not at all,’ said the 29-year-old Belgian after her 6-3 7-6(4) victory over Elena-Gabriela Ruse in the final match.‘How many times do you get into a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":21024,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/libema-open.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21033\/"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/libema-open.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/libema-open.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post\/"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libema-open.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7\/"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libema-open.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments\/?post=21033"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/libema-open.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21033\/revisions\/"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21036,"href":"https:\/\/libema-open.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21033\/revisions\/21036\/"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libema-open.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21024\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/libema-open.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/?parent=21033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libema-open.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories\/?post=21033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libema-open.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags\/?post=21033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}