Australian Open: Mertens knocked out in quarter-final

Elise Mertens and Storm Sanders failed to qualify for the doubles semi-finals at the Australian Open on Wednesday. The Belgian-Australian duo lost a very close game in three sets against Ukrainian Marta Kostyuk and Romanian Elena-Gabriela Ruse. After a lost 7-6 tiebreak, Mertens responded with a dominant 6-2. The deciding set ended 6-4 in favour of Kostyuk and Ruse.

Mertens aimed to win the Australian Open a second time with her new doubles partner, after her 2021 victory with Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka. Mertens also won the 2019 US Open with Sabalenka. Mertens added Wimbledon to her record in 2021 with the Taiwanese Hsieh Su-Wei.

With this defeat, Mertens is out of the tournament in Melbourne. Sabalenka already eliminated Mertens 6-2, 6-3 in the third round of singles on Saturday.

^{© BELGA PHOTO PATRICK HAMILTON}