WHAT HAPPENED: Mother Nature turned up the temperature and humidity on Wednesday at the US Open, and so did No. 33 seed Elise Mertens.
Two-time former quarterfinalist Mertens burned through Ajla Tomljanovic 6-3, 6-2 to reach the third round for the second consecutive year and fourth time in her career at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.
Unfazed by the conditions and her midday start, the 28-year-old Belgium veteran coolly took care of business in just 91 minutes on a sun baked Court 7. She never trailed in the match. She controlled play behind a sturdy serve, that she never lost that featured seven aces and supported by 15 groundstroke winners.
Tomljanovic, however, never was quite able to find her form that had carried the Australian 31-year-old to as high as No. 32 in the world in 2023 as the three-time Grand Slam quarterfinalist (including here at the Open in 2022, where she ended Serena Williams' career) sprayed 29 errors around the court.
One of those errors was a double fault on break point in the eighth game of the first set that handed Mertens a service break and a 5-3 lead. There was still some tension in the next game before Mertens claimed the set on her third set point with another Tomljanovic error.
It was pretty much all Mertens in the last set as she raced to a 3-0 lead and stretched it to 5-2. The Australian gamely fought on in the final game forcing Mertens to fight off two break points before hitting a service winner on her second match point.
WHAT IT MEANS: It has been an indifferent season so far for Mertens as 2018 Australian Open semifinalist and 2019 and 2020 US Open quarterfinalist has fought to climb back into the world’s Top 25 where she had been from 2018-21.
Her best Grand Slam showing was the French Open third round sandwiched between second round losses at the Australian Open and Wimbledon. In three summer tournaments, her best result was the third round at Toronto, where she beat Naomi Osaka along the way.
MATCH POINT: The 2017 US Open runner-up and No. 14 seed Madison Keys is up next for Mertens. Can she pull the upset of the American fan favorite?
