Mertens stuns second seed Rybakina to reach the last 16
Seven defeats in eight meetings, then a giant slain: Elise Mertens (No 25) stunned second seed Elena Rybakina 7-6 (4), 6-1 to reach the Wimbledon last 16 and end the 2022 champion’s title bid.
Elise Mertens, Wimbledon 2026 | © PsNewz
Belgian seed No 25 Elise Mertens produced the biggest result of the women’s draw so far on Sunday, beating Kazakh second seed Elena Rybakina 7-6 (4), 6-1 to reach the fourth round of Wimbledon and send out the 2022 champion.
Mertens had lost seven of her eight previous meetings with Rybakina, and the manner of the turnaround was as striking as the result. She edged a tense opening set on a tie-break, and once ahead she pulled away, taking the second for the loss of a single game as Rybakina’s level fell away.
It was the 14th top-10 win of Mertens’s career and carried her into the Wimbledon fourth round for a second successive year.
The defeat also carried a wider consequence: Rybakina had needed to reach at least the quarter-finals to keep alive her bid to overtake Aryna Sabalenka at the top of the rankings, and her exit ends that pursuit for now.
“I have no words, actually — I feel a little bit like, ‘woo,'” Mertens said on court afterwards. “I’m very happy I won that first set and kept the momentum going. She’s an incredible player, she’s won Wimbledon in the past (2022), a really tough opponent.” Asked about the nerves of serving out the biggest win of her fortnight, she was disarmingly frank. “I think you could see that,” she said.
