Elise Mertens Interview from the Miami Open

Elise Mertens is the 2nd ranked doubles player on the WTA tour. She has four major titles including the 2024 Australian Open.

I spoke with Elise in Miami after her 1st round victory. We talk about that match, practicing for singles vs doubles, and how she and Hsieh Su-wei adjust to different opponents.

Elise also shares why focusing on your good points can help you in pressure moments and a few thoughts on marketing for doubles.

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Transcript

Speaker 1 1:15

You're about to hear another interview from Miami, this time with world number two, alisa Mertens. I spoke with her after her first round win with Shea Suey and we talk a little bit about that match where they faced a couple of set points in the first set. It was a very close match, and then I asked them about how they adjust to the opponent. So Alisa and Shea Suey won the Australian Open this year. They also were coming off the Indian Wells title and they've been playing at such a high level. I was curious if at this point, they just play their game and allow opponents to adjust to them, or do they still take into account some of the opponent's strengths and weaknesses? And she talks a little bit about that.

Speaker 1 2:00

After that we dive into pressure points and 10 point tiebreakers. She shares her thoughts on really focusing on your good points and kind of setting aside the bad points. So she has some nice tips for you there. And then at the end we talk about changes coming potentially to the doubles tour, allowing fans to move around the stadium and different things like that. So this is another short conversation, but a very fun one. So, without further delay, enjoy this little brief chat with Elise Mertens, so far this year, y'all have either won the tournament or lost your first match. I know, and you just won your first match, so you're going to win the tournament, I assume. Talk a little bit about the match, though.

Speaker 2 2:49

Well, it is the plan, but I don't know if. I can execute the plan.

Speaker 2 2:53

So you know, I'm just happy to get through that first round because it was pretty difficult. I mean, they played a pretty solid game, our opponents, but with a different surface and every week is a bit different, different circumstances. So we felt like, okay, we need to adapt a little bit. And it was pretty difficult at the start. We made some mistakes maybe, but actually we were focusing on our serve, which was pretty important. Today I felt like, okay, we're getting there. Of course, we have four set points against us. We said, okay, we play point by point and eventually won. So we're very happy that we could win this first set. And then we were on a roll a little bit more. We felt like, okay, our game is working again.

Speaker 1 3:34

Talk a little bit about what practice looks like for you this week, because I know a lot of tournaments. You're playing singles and then maybe you lose early, or maybe you make a deep run and then in doubles, either you lose first round or you win the tournament. So in this case you you lost a little bit early in singles and now you've got doubles still going on. So will you refocus practice towards doubles or are you still focusing on singles?

Speaker 2 3:58

So when I'm still in a singles tournament, I'll focus on singles, of course uh we mostly, if I only have um doubles on that day, we would have a long warm-up, like an hour. We would practice doubles. Now I lost my uh, my singles, so we are totally focused on doubles. We're doing doubles practices together um working on things we want to work on. So we're we're both fully focused on doubles at this moment.

Speaker 1 4:24

And I wanted to ask about Indian Wells. So you all won the tournament, you didn't drop a set. Are you all at a point where you feel like you don't have to make a whole lot of adjustments to the opponent because you're playing so strongly together and you just let the opponents adjust to you? Or is it something that you still kind of tweak from match to match? How do you think about that?

Speaker 2 4:47

Well, I think it's important to first of all analyze your own game. What can we do? Better as a team. What can I do better personally and adapt to that? So I think the first thing is yourself or your team, of course because we're with 2-1 court.

Speaker 2 5:03

And then, yeah, of course we have some tactics against the opponents. Of course we look at matches from them too, because we don't want to be surprised at times, and especially on the important points, because you know, the 40-all sometimes can get a bit tricky. But yeah, first of all we start from ourselves and then we can always make adjustments um.

Speaker 1 5:23

So this month I'm focusing with the the audience on like the mental game and like playing really good under pressure. Um 10 point tiebreakers, deciding points is there a tip you have for them or something you like to do in those pressure moments that helps you perform better?

Speaker 2 5:39

Well, I think you have to gain confidence from your good points. If you only look at your losses, that you're okay returning the net or anything, just try to focus on point by point. Take the good ones with you, have that feeling like, okay, they have to win that point too. So put the pressure a bit on them and you know you have to rely on your partner, which I do, of course, is a very good one, um, but yeah, I think just start from yourself and don't really look at the score. Okay, if you lose the game, there's always another opportunity, unless it's match point. But um, it's never over, like today. Okay, they have four set points. Then they came back in the tie break. It was very, a very close one, but we just kept on going.

Speaker 1 6:24

So last question so last week at Indian Wells I spoke with Matt Ebden, who's on the ATP Players Council, and he talked about potential changes or we both talked about potential changes coming for doubles and one of the things he described was obviously doubles needs better marketing and one of the things he described was obviously doubles needs better marketing, but also some potential changes to like the product itself, and he used the phrase party atmosphere, so turning doubles into a little bit more fun, where it's like there's some music, maybe fans can go in and out a little bit more. Um, what are your thoughts on that and what changes would you like to see to help doubles kind of grow a little bit?

Speaker 2 7:02

yeah, I think, like fans can go in and out. I think it's you have to. You know, keep your focus and if tennis, if you want to thrive tennis, then it's very important to you know. I think doubles is very entertaining even more than singles, sometimes because you have that net player, you know the drop shot volley or they cross, so you never know what's coming. And actually in Indian Wells the first and the second round of stadiums was full already and we're like okay, this is only the first round and I felt like even more people were watching my doubles than my singles, so I was very surprised, in a good way, of course too,

Speaker 2 7:41

But I feel like, yes, marketing wise, yes, I think it could be a bit more in the picture. I feel like tennis is alive at the moment. Singles is very well how you guys doing very well too, so why not, you know, market dubs a little bit more, because I feel like a lot of people came and watch today too, and a lot of people actually like watching doubles. Is it ever going to be as big as singles? We'll never know.

Speaker 1 8:02

It would take a long time.

Speaker 2 8:03

It would take a long time, but you know to, maybe on social media to put some posts of like good points or like top four seats have some good points here and there, then maybe, yeah, some fans will come and watch a bit more Devils, which is very fun.

Speaker 1 8:20

Awesome. Thank you, Elise.

Speaker 2 8:21

Thank you.