Elise Mertens reaches Monterrey tournament final
Belgian tennis player Elise Mertens defeated Czech player Nikola Bartunkova in the Monterrey Open semi-final in Mexico and reached the final of the WTA 500 tournament. Second-seeded Mertens lost the first set but won the match 1:6, 6:4, 6:2.
Comeback after a poor start
Bartunkova started the match with a break and took a 4:1 lead. The 20-year-old Czech secured two more breaks and finished the first set 6:1.
In the second set, Mertens was trailing 0:3 but changed the course of the match. The 30-year-old Belgian won three consecutive games on her opponent's serve and took six of the last seven games of the set, leveling the match.
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Diane Parry will be her opponent
In the deciding set, Mertens took a 2:1 lead after an early break and later broke Bartunkova's serve again in the seventh game. The Belgian then served for the match and completed the comeback with a victory.
In the final, Mertens will play Frenchwoman Diane Parry. In the first semi-final, the 23-year-old Parry defeated fifth-seeded American Ann Li, 7:6(7), 6:4. The match lasted two hours and three minutes. As Channel NewsAsia reports, the Monterrey tournament is a hard-court competition ahead of the US Open.
