Why she may have been overlooked in 2025
Most of Mertens’ biggest results in singles this year came at the smaller WTA events, the WTA 250s—both of her titles, in Singapore and ’s-Hertogenbosch, as well as one more final in Hobart.
But what she achieved in ’s-Hertogenbosch was big—not only was it her milestone 10th WTA title and her first on grass, which means she now has WTA titles on every surface in her career, but she fought off an incredible 11 match points in her 2-6, 7-6 (7), 6-4 semifinal victory over Ekaterina Alexandrova there, which was the most match points any woman has saved in a tour-level match so far this decade. Throw in a couple of WTA 500 quarterfinals in Stuttgart and Monterrey and she finished the year at No. 20, her fourth career Top 20 finish in singles, and first since 2020.
She had a lot of success on the doubles court, too, winning Wimbledon and the WTA Finals alongside Veronika Kudermetova—with the four Grand Slams going to four different teams this year, they were actually the only team to win two of the five biggest titles of 2025. Mertens ended up finishing the year at No. 5 in doubles, her seventh straight Top 10 finish in the team discipline.
The Belgian was actually one of only three women to finish the year in the Top 20 in both singles and doubles this year, alongside Jasmine Paolini and Mirra Andreeva.
