Elise Mertens celebrates after winning her women’s singles match against Iga Swiatek at the China Open tennis tournament in Beijing. (EPA Images pic)BENGALURU: Elise Mertens stunned former champion Iga Swiatek 7-6(0) 6-3 on Friday to reach the China Open semi-finals, continuing her impressive run in Beijing after also eliminating American third seed Coco Gauff earlier in the week.
The 30-year-old Belgian, ranked 19th in the world, produced a composed display to secure back-to-back victories over Grand Slam champions and advance to just the third WTA 1000 semi-final of her career and her first since 2021.
Mertens seized control by dominating the opening-set tiebreak without dropping a point and carried that momentum into the second set, breaking Swiatek and completing one of the biggest upsets of the tournament.
