Mertens sweeps to seventh career title in Monastir

No.5 seed Elise Mertens of Belgium charged to her first title of the year with a 6-2, 6-0 dismantling of No.3 seed Alizé Cornet of France at the inaugural Jasmin Open on Sunday.

Mertens captured her seventh career title after the 80-minute match, reeling off the last 11 games of the affair. Mertens edges ahead 3-2 in her head-to-head against Cornet with the victory.

Read more: How Ons Jabeur helped bring the Jasmin Open to life

The first Hologic WTA Tour event in Tunisia helps turn around the season for former World No.12 Mertens, who had reached only two quarterfinals in 2022 coming into Monastir, and lost both.

This week, Mertens reached her first final since Istanbul in April of last year, and she claimed her first title since winning Melbourne’s Gippsland Trophy over Kaia Kanepi in February of last year.

Mertens dropped two sets en route to the final, but on Sunday she was totally in charge, winning 83 percent of her first-service points. Mertens converted five of her nine break points and saved all three of the break points she faced.

Cornet matched Mertens with 10 winners, but she had seven more unforced errors than the Belgian, including a number of ill-timed patches of double faults. Cornet finished the match with nine double faults in total, while Mertens had just one.

After saving two break points in a hold for 2-2, Mertens grabbed hold of the match in the next game, converting her fourth break point to lead 3-2 and never looking back from there. A rally overhead winner gave Mertens a second break and a 5-2 lead, and the Belgian served out the opening set.

In the second set, an amazing angled pass gave Mertens a break point for a 3-0 lead, which Cornet ceded after slamming an overhead into the net. Two games later, a volley winner gave Mertens a 5-0 advantage, and she finished off the clash with a routine love hold to take home the title.

More to come…