After her elimination in the second round of the singles on Thursday, Elise Mertens was able to take revenge in the doubles at Wimbledon on Friday.
The 27-year-old from Limburg won her first round match alongside Australian Storm Hunter in two short sets (6-0 and 6-2) against Ukrainian Nadiia Kichenok and Polish Alicja Rosolska. The match lasted one hour and two minutes.
Mertens and Hunter are currently leading the way in the doubles. In the second round, they will be up against the winners of the match between Chilean Alexa Guarachi and New Zealand's Erin Routliffe, and Romanian Irina-Camelia Begu and Ukrainian Anhelina Kalinina. Their match is scheduled later on Friday afternoon.
Elise Mertens became world number one when she won the doubles at Wimbledon in May 2021, alongside Taiwanese Hsieh Su-Wei. She was the third Belgian to hold the ranking in either singles or doubles after Kim Clijsters and Justine Henin. Last year, she was a losing finalist together with China's Zhang Shuai.
On Thursday, Elise Mertens (WTA 28) lost her second-round singles match at the London championships in three sets (6-1, 1-6, 6-1) to Ukraine's Elina Svitolina (WTA 76), the former world number three.
In addition to Mertens, Maryna Zanevska (WTA 88), Greet Minnen (WTA 123), Yanina Wickmayer (WTA 112) and Ysaline Bonaventure (WTA 91) were also on the main singles table but all of them fell in the opening round.
