The Belgian Elise Mertens will be going all out to win her second WTA title in two years when she faces Ann Li of the USA at the Singapore Tennis Open final at the Kallang Tennis Hub.
Mertens defeated fourth seed Wang Xinyu of China 6-3, 6-4 match in the semi-finals. Now, the 29-year-old Belgian has the title in her sights, having made it to the finals of the US$275,000 (S$371,000) event.
After her semi-final win, she said: “I will definitely enjoy the win of today and the title is always on your mind when you enter a tournament and I’m the second seed… I’m pretty pleased about my performance at the beginning of the year… But I just have to focus on myself and not so much on the score or the outcome, to use the experience from the last final I played and hopefully it will go my way.”
Mertens’ athletic performance
The Belgian athlete, who won the Jasmin Open in October 2023, has made two more final appearances– both at the Hobart International in 2024 and 2025– but was defeated each time.
While Mertens is widely known for her achievements in doubles– where she was once ranked world No. 1 and won four Grand Slam titles– she made the decision to skip the doubles event at the Singapore Tennis Open and focus on her singles career.
The athlete admitted: “It’s not so easy to have a high singles ranking. There are a lot of other good players, but I only played singles this week because my priority is singles… I never really practise doubles, which I know is pretty strange. I’ll definitely want to grow my ranking again in singles; I think this is a good start.”
Li defeated top seed Kalinskaya
Russian top seed Anna Kalinskaya was forced to retire from her semi-final match with Ann Li of the USA due to injury.
Ranked No. 18 in the world, Kalinskaya faced a difficult setback when she lost the first set to Ann Li with a scoreline of 7-6 (7-2). After the set, Kalinskaya received treatment on her right thigh at the courtside but was still unable to continue.
Li, ranked 85th, took the first game of the second set. Then, just 59 minutes into the match, Kalinskaya was forced to retire, sending Li into the final.
The American, who has never faced Mertens before, is expecting a challenging final match against Mertens.
Li stated: “From when I won my first title, I’ve struggled for a bit for a couple of years and since maybe mid- to the end of last year, I started to feel a lot better… I found my game again, found myself a little bit, of course I want to win. Whatever happens, I’m just going to put everything out there and I’m happy with the week either way… I’m just going to try to play good tennis again. If I fight and compete well, I know I have a good chance.”