Tennis star saves 11 match points as rival left sick to the stomach | Tennis | Sport
Elise Mertens conjured up some of the most clutch tennis to ever grace the sport on Saturday, surviving 11 match points to reach the ’s-Hertogenbosch Open final. The Belgian completed a thrilling comeback against Russia‘s Ekaterina Alexandrova at Autotron Rosmalen, winning 2-6, 7-6 (7), 6-4 in dramatic fashion.
Mertens’ miraculous triumph against the two-time champion has set up a final against Romanian qualifier Elena-Gabriela Ruse or Elisabetta Cocciaretto of Italy. The No. 3 seed – and No. 25 in the WTA rankings – clawed her way back from certain defeat 11 times to stun Alexandrova in the Netherlands.
In doing so, she equalled the record number of match points saved to win a tennis match this century set by Zsofia Gubacsi at the 2001 French Open.
Mertens was first 2-6 4-5 down in sets and trailed the 10th game 15-40 before saving two match points to force a deuce.
Alexandrova then had three advantages, all of which she failed to capitalise on as Mertens clinched the game.
The Russian scuppered a further five match points when she led the second set 6-5, one at 40-30 up before another four advantages.
That allowed Mertens to scrape into a tiebreak, during which she fell 5-6 down but then fought back to a 9-7 win, forcing a deciding set.
Both players held their serves until Alexandrova, again, took the upper hand by breaking Mertens to lead 4-3.
But the former world No. 12 instantly broke back and won the final three games to take the deciding set 6-4 and book her spot in the final.
Mertens collapsed to the ground, overwhelmed with emotion, after the winning point, and she will be back in action on Sunday.
Boris Becker was among those who reacted on social media, quoting a post showing the incredible outcome with: “11 …..MP !”
Meanwhile, @TennisPrintsGB wrote: “Incredible fight from Mertens!”
@Josephine121222 posted: “She is good, not just in doubles. If she had a forehand, considering what the WTA is right now, she could be in the finals of Slam.”
@filthyfili sympathised: “Feel for Alexandrova. Was the better player for most of the match, but sometimes it’s better to be clutch. And man, some of those misses on match points were rough. Credit to Mertens though, she had some good moments too, especially defensively on one of those match points.”
@jnail96 added: “Oh, I would simply have to retire from tennis if I failed to convert 11 match points.”
Mertens’ run to the semi-finals was fairly routine, beating Bulgaria’s Viktoriya Tomova 6-4, 6-0, Greece’s Maria Sakkari 6-3, 6-0, and Chinese lucky loser Yue Yuan 6-0, 6-4.
If a victory like that doesn’t give her confidence that the trophy already has her name on it, it’s hard to think what else would.
