Elise Mertens v Venus Williams: Who is the tennis player who took on Venus Williams?
ELISE Mertens was beaten by Venus Williams at Wimbledon after play was temporarily suspended due to rain today. But who is the Belgian tennis player and what is her ranking?
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Mertens spent the game on the ropes with the five-time Wimbledon champion leading the match 7 – 6 and 5 – 3 before it was cut short.
But she was overpowered by Williams in the final bouts of the game, with the US athlete securing a 7 – 6 and 6 – 4 win on the third serve of three match points.
The 21-year-old, from Leuven in Belgium, is a one-time Women's Tennis Association (WTA) singles winner, and holds one WTA doubles trophy.
On top of her WTA titles, she has also won several International Tennis Federation (ITF) trophies.
She has yet to reach the same heights of fame as Venus Williams but by all counts this season has been her strongest to date.
In fact, Martens was only one year old when Williams made her Wimbledon debut in 1997.
For years, she was coached by Robbe Ceyssens and trained in the Kim Clijsters Academy, named after the former world number one.
She also spent her teenage years training under the Belgian Federation and even Mouratoglou Academy in Paris.
Her older sister Lauren introduced her to the sport when she was only four years old.
Mertens has a personal preference for soft pitches, her favourite shot is the serve and she plays a double handed backhand.
Her highest ranking so far is number 57 in June 2017, but it has since dropped down to number 54. She is also ranked 72nd in the doubles ranking.
In contrast, Venus Williams was the world number one in 2010, and is now maintaining her 39th spot in the charts.
Martens who only reached pro status in 2013, kicked off this year bey defeating Romania’s Monica Niculescu in the Australian Hobart International tournament.
Unfortunately, she was unable to participate in the Australian Open because the two tournaments were too close together.
The victorious games however allowed her to break through into the WTA’s top 100 for the very first time.
She failed to qualify for the Malaysian Open after losing out to Dutch player Lesley Kerkhove, and the spell of bad luck carried on to the Indian Wells and Miami Open where she lost out in the first rounds.
The tennis player holds a career record of 124 – 61 in singles and 102 – 37 in doubles.