Belgian Elise Mertens celebrates after winning a third round game in the women's doubles tournament between Belgian Mertens - Chinese Zhang and Ukrainian Kichenok - Romanian Olaru at the 2022 Wimbledon grand slam tennis tournament at the All England Tennis Club, in south-west London, Britain, Monday 04 July 2022. BELGA PHOTO BENOIT DOPPAGNE (Photo by BENOIT DOPPAGNE / BELGA MAG / Belga via AFP) (Photo by BENOIT DOPPAGNE/BELGA MAG/AFP via Getty Images)
Belgian star, Elise Mertens locks horns with the exciting Alycia Parks in the round of 128 of the 2023 Miami Open on Tuesday.
The 27-year-old produced her best result of the season in the Monterrey Open. She made it to the semifinals with wins against Diana Shnaider, Elena-Gabriela Ruse, and Elisabetta Cocciaretto. Her run ended when she was outplayed by the top seed, Caroline Garcia.
Mertens did not have a fruitful campaign in Indian Wells at the beginning of the month. She was comprehensively defeated by Wang Xinyu in the round of 128. Last year in Miami, Mertens entered as the 20th seed and received a bye into the second round. However, she couldn’t progress further as she went down to Linda Fruhvirtova.
The talented youngster showed great promise towards the end of 2022. She made 2023 a memorable year for herself as she won the Lyon Open in February. This was her first WTA tour-level title and she defeated Caroline Garcia to win the final. Since then, Parks has struggled with lack of form and she comes into the tournament on the back of a 3-match losing streak.
In Indian Wells, Parks crashed out in the first round as she was annihilated by Anna Kalinskaya. Parks could not progress beyond the second round of qualifying at last year’s Miami Open.
This will be the first encounter between Alycia Parks and Elise Mertens. Therefore, the head-to-head scoreline currently stands at 0-0.
Prediction: Alycia Parks to win in three sets.
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