After historic semifinal escape, Mertens captures 's-Hertogenbosch title
Elise Mertens achieved a career milestone on Sunday at the Libéma Open: By defeating Elena-Gabriela Ruse 6-3, 7-6(4) in the final, the 29-year-old Belgian captured her 10th career Hologic WTA Tour singles title and her first on grass.
The former World No. 12 now owns titles on all three of the major playing surfaces, and closed the book on what became a thrilling week by ending qualifier Ruse's run in 1 hour and 58 minutes.
After saving 11 match points in her semifinal win over Ekaterina Alexandrova -- the most match points saved by any player in a tour-level main-draw match this decade -- Mertens saved two set points in the second set in the final. She was down 15-40 on serve in the 10th game, but escaped the threat, and later, won the first four points of the tiebreak to hold on for the win.
's-Hertogenbosch is about an hour-and-a-half by car from Mertens' Belgian hometown of Leuven, and several of her friends and family were in attendance throughout the week -- including her beloved nieces.
She was thrilled to secure a first grass-court title in a place she called "[her] garden."
"It's been an incredible week," Mertens said afterwards. "Yesterday, I had 11 match points against me, and I managed to still win that match. It's tennis; anything can happen, so I'm very proud that I took that change yesterday, and today, it was an amazing match."
"I really feel at home here," Mertens added.
The win is the Belgian's second on tour this year after she won the WTA 250 in Singapore in February. She was also runner-up in Hobart at the start of the season in Australia.
Khromacheva and Stollar win doubles
In Saturday's doubles final, No. 2 seeds Irina Khromacheva and Fanny Stollar topped No. 3 seeds Nicole Melichar-Martinez and Liudmila Samsonova 7-5, 6-3 for their first title as a team.
Individually, the two had been 0-3 in tour-level doubles finals this season before teaming up to win their respective first grass-court titles.
