Elise Mertens describes herself as a “normal” girl and a quiet one, who prefers time with the family dogs to music or dancing, and loves that her training base, the Kim Clijsters Academy, is just a 15-minute drive from her Flanders home.
But it is in another, distant, land that Mertens has crashed the seeds' party - a player who insists she arrived with low expectations having reached heights she has never scaled before.
There must be something about Australia for Mertens, having swapped snow for welcome sunshine, having won her first two WTA singles titles in Hobart in the past two years and started the Australian Open having won just two matches at Grand Slam level, anywhere. But the surprise member of the last four is not without a chance of continuing her run against No.2 seed Caroline Wozniacki in Thursday’s semifinal.
“Semifinal. Anything can happen,’’ the 22-year-old said after crushing fourth seed Elina Svitolina 6-4 6-0. “I just have to believe in myself and still have energy left to do great stuff.’’
Mertens’ coach, Robbe Ceyssens, is also her boyfriend, and whatever pillow talk the pair is sharing is having the desired results. Ceyssens spoke on Tuesday of his pride in a “fantastic” performance against a slightly injured Svitolina, of her focus, and aggressive tactics. After needing four hours to win her previous two matches, he told the Belgian media her first top-five scalp was proof of how quickly the world No.37 learns.
There have been a few fine teachers, and Mertens expected to turn on her phone after fulfilling her media obligations to find a message from Clijsters in a bulging inbox. She had first watched the four-time major winner as a five-year-old, and also idolised Justine Henin, the other star of Belgian women’s tennis’ golden age.
Declaring that “if Kim is playing, she can hit the ball as good as before”, she has trained at Clijsters’ academy in Bree for three years, the last of them as one of the biggest movers up the WTA rankings list, having soared from 120 to 35 In the past 12 months.
Last January, she did not even contest the Australian Open, having missed out on qualifying because she was still winning in Hobart, having thus helped to trigger a WTA rule change barring players from entering both a tournament and qualifying event in the same week.
This time, Mertens is riding a nine-match winning streak through her main draw debut at Melbourne Park, as her tiny country’s first slam semifinalist since Kirsten Flipkens at 2013 Wimbledon and the first here since Clijsters, in her 2012 farewell.
Roland Garros last May was the scene of her first singles win at major level, and her second, against Australian Daria Gavrilova, was repeated on Rod Laver Arena after a horror 0-5 start. Few imagined then that she would be leading off semifinal day against Wozniacki, the vastly experienced dual US Open finalist and former world No.1.
Their only previous clash was a three-setter, on clay in Bastad, and what Mertens admits is still a “wow” moment to get this far in just her fifth major is for Wozniacki a seventh semifinal in her 43rd.
“Didn't really have a lot of expectations here,’’ said Mertens. “I played a qualifier first round, so I was expected to win. Not always easy, but yeah, as it moved forward, first round, second round, I didn't really expect to be in the semis.
“I've got nothing to lose, that's for sure. I have no points to defend. I guess I'm a bit, well, the underdog, as today. But I'm ready for it. I mean, I have a lot of energy left. Mentally/physically good. I'm just going to give it all and see where it ends.’’