Elise Mertens was back into the third round at the French Open Thursday. For a second straight year, the Belgian who has been having the best season of her career advanced in a straight-sets victory over Heather Watson 6-3, 6-4 on Court Three at Roland Garros.
Both had two meetings in the books with one another and all in the Belgian’s favor. With one taking place at the start of the season, the Brit hoped to get revenge on the clay courts making it the second surface they would compete on. Watson had an average result from her bout with Oceane Dodin while Mertens went the distance against Varvara Lepchenko to enter into the second round in consecutive years. While she looked to make it back to back appearances in the third round, the 22-year-old had to put the stops in place and be the aggressor.
She opened with a break of Watson to open the set consolidating it with a service hold in the second. The early momentum was already getting the best of the Brit who couldn’t find the chance to break in the third watching the gap widen between herself and Mertens. Watson’s seven unforced errors and struggling service game were the main cause for the Belgian’s success until the Brit fought to deuce. Five breaks spanned the fourth game lasting eight minutes where Watson made it difficult for Mertens to secure the hold and instead marked one for herself.
Mertens was in no mood to ease up for Watson earning a break in the fifth to hold three games between herself and the 26-year-old. Watson had others plans as she gained some push to her game forcing deuce on the break chance to cut into the margin through six. Mertens made her pay for it with a key break that gave the Belgian a 5-2 score serving for the set. Watson remained positive against her opponent earning a break in her consistency to keep the set alive for herself.
Mertens denied her that opportunity laying down the law with three set points to close the first in 39 minutes. She outdid the Brit overall who had a dismal offense winning seven percent from the second serve recording 17 errors due to it. With more time to recover, the 26-year-old had to find a way to dig in against the world number 16.
The Belgian remained firm on her quest to make it hers to dictate opening the second with a fight but coming out victorious. It was soon a mirrored image of the opening set with Mertens taking a 2-0 lead. Watson earned a break in the third faced heavy opposition as Mertens secured the break for 3-1. While the Belgian pushed forward, Watson tried to find ways of making her serve count at every chance. She picked up the sixth holding two points on Mertens before scoring a much needed triple break that cut Mertens margin down to one. In the last ten points, Watson had eight of them making her intentions clear to fight for a deciding set to get into play.
In an attempt to stop the Brit, Mertens rallied to deuce in the eighth but faced determination from the 26-year-old who showed poise to win playing long ball rallies despite double-faulting on serve. With things dead even at four apiece, the Belgian made her charge to go for it on serve which she successfully did before attacking every part of Watson’s game in the tenth. Mertens achieved two match points to get it done in 1 hour and 27 minutes. Both serves were below average for the world number 16 who had her opponent’s 37 errors five double faults to thank. The eight of 11 break points she recorded was a good sign to the ultimate goal of getting back into the tail end of the first week. She’ll try to progress into the second week in Saturday’s matchup between Daria Gavrilova or American Bernarda Pera.
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