Elise Mertens (WTA D-6) won the Australian Open in doubles for the third time in her career, winning the final of the 2026 edition on Saturday alongside Chinese Zhang Shuai (WTA D-15).
The two partners, who formed the N.1 seed on the Australian acrylic, wrote the most beautiful page in their common history by defeating the N.7 seed of the Kazakhstani Anna Danilina (WTA D-14) and the Serbian Aleksandra Krunic (WTA D-17). The game ended with a score of 7-6 (7/4), 6-4, after one hour and 48 minutes of play.
This is the third coronation in Melbourne for Mertens, who won the Australian Open in 2021 with the Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka, the current world No.1 in singles, then in 2024 with the Taiwanese Hsieh Su-Wei, who was eliminated this year in the quarter-finals alongside the Latvian Jelena Ostapenko.
Return to first place in the ranking
The Belgian N.1’s tally climbs to six Grand Slam final victories, the first of which was won at the 2019 US Open (with Sabalenka), and the other two at Wimbledon, in 2021 with Hsieh and in 2025 with the Russian Veronika Kudermetova, in addition to the Australian Open in 2021 and 2024.
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In addition to celebrating this coronation, Elise Mertens will return to 1st place in the world doubles ranking on Monday, when it is updated. The Limburger has not been at the top since July 2024. In total, since July 12, 2021 and her first accession to the throne, Mertens has spent a total of 39 weeks in first place.
