Elise Mertens successfully wins 2023 Jasmin Open Monastir for second year in a row, eases past Jasmine Paolini

Elise Mertens successfully defended her title at the Jasmin Monastir Open with a convincing victory over Jasmine Paolini by 6-3,, 6-0

The Belgian tennis player showcased her comfort on the Monastir courts, winning all five matches without dropping a set and with an average of just four games lost per match.

As the second seed and defending champion, she capitalized on her favoritism throughout the tournament. Along her path to the title, she defeated Alexandra Eala (196th), Iryna Shymanovich (176th), Mai Hontama (124th), Clara Burel (74th), and, in the final, the top seed Jasmine Paolini (29th).

A highly competitive showdown was anticipated, but Mertens asserted her game right from the beginning of the match. In just 70 minutes, she dashed Paolini's hopes of adding another title to her career. The previous head-to-head record between Mertens and Paolini favored Mertens 2-1, with all previous matches going the distance. However, Paolini was visibly fatigued, having reached the semifinals of the WTA 500 Zhengzhou Open the week before and enduring a long journey to Monastir in Tunisia.

While the past three encounters between these two players had been three-set affairs, this time, Mertens won the last ten games of the match to deny Paolini her second career title.

Nevertheless, the Italian did achieve a notable feat in the doubles event, where she secured the title alongside her compatriot Sara Errani. They mounted a comeback from a 6-2, 5-1 deficit against the duo of Mai Hontama and Natalija Stevanovic to claim their first title as a pair with a score of 2-6, 7-6, 10-6.

Following these results, both players are separated by a mere six points in the rankings. Paolini has now reached a career-high world ranking of No. 29, while Mertens is situated at world No. 30. As of now, neither player has confirmed their participation in upcoming tournaments, so it's likely they will conclude their season, which had a strong finish, with the possibility of ending the year within the top 30.