Mertens’ dazzling debut continues into semifinals
Belgian upsets No. 4 Svitolina, capturing her 10th consecutive match
MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA >> A year after opting out of qualifying for the Australian Open, Elise Mertens has reached the semifinals in her debut at the season-opening major.
Mertens upset fourth-seeded Elina Svitolina 6-4, 6-0 on Tuesday (Australia time) to extend her winning streak to 10 matches and be the first woman through to the semifinals at Melbourne Park. She’s the first Belgian since Kim Clijsters in 2012 to reach the semifinals in Australia.
She trains at Clijsters’ academy and knew the four-time major winner was watching on TV.
“Kim, thanks for watching, I knew you sent me a message before the match, don’t be too stressy,” Mertens said. “I’m trying to be in your footsteps this week.”
The No. 37-ranked Mertens successfully defended her Hobart International title she decided last year to target that title instead of enter Open qualifying two weeks ago, and has now won five matches at Melbourne Park.
Mertens dominated against Svitolina, who also entered her first quarterfinal in Australia on a nine-match winning roll after winning the Brisbane International two week ago.
Svitolina had won their only previous tour-level match, but had no answers on Rod Laver Arena.
Mertens raced out to a 5-2 in the first set before Svitolina got her only service break. The second set was no contest. Mertens won a 27-point rally while holding serve in the fourth game, then hit a backhand winner into the open corner to break Svitolina in the next game for a 5-0 lead.
Svitolina, who had a late finish to
her fourth-round match that started just before midnight Sunday, framed an overhead and hit it over the baseline to give Mertens match point. Mertens duly finished it with a backhand crosscourt winner.
Mertens will play either secondseeded Caroline Wozniacki or Carla Suarez Navarro in the semis.
In other quarterfinals, top-seeded Rafael Nadal was to play No. 6 Marin Cilic and No. 3 Grigor Dimitrov faced Kyle Edmund.
• Even by Australian Open standards, back-to-back shockers have resulted in a most unexpected quarterfinal.
The season-opening Grand Slam has a tendency to be unpredictable, but losing six-time champion Novak Djokovic and fifth-ranked Dominic Thiem within a few hours on Monday leaves Hyeon Chung and Tennys Sandgren playing for a spot in the semifinals.
The 58th-ranked Chung relentlessly attacked a clearly injured Djokovic in a 7-6 (4), 7-5, 7-6 (3) fourth-round victory, becoming the first South Korean to reach the last eight at a Grand Slam.
Then there’s Tennys. The 26-yearold from Tennessee had never won a Grand Slam match or beaten a top-10 player until last week.
The 97th-ranked Sandgren beat Thiem 6-2, 4-6, 7-6 (4), 6-7 (7), 6-3, following up on his earlier victory over 2014 Australian Open champion Stan Wawrinka.
He’s only the second man in 20 years to reach the quarterfinals in his debut at Melbourne Park.
The upsets continued later when Kyle Edmund reached the semifinals after an upset 6-4, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 win over third-seeded Grigor Dimitrov.
Edmund will play either top-seeded Rafael Nadal or No. 6 Marin Cilic in the first men’s semifinal on Thursday.
Nadal and Cilic were set to play a quarterfinal on Tuesday night.
• Mischa Zverev was fined $45,000 at the Australian Open for a poor performance in his first-round match against Chung, the largest penalty ever assessed to an individual during a Grand Slam tournament for an on-site transgression.
Zverev was punished under a new rule implemented by the Grand Slam Board in the off-season.