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Match Details
Fixture: (7) Jessica Pegula vs Elise Mertens
Date: January 15, 2025
Tournament: Australian Open 2025
Round: Second Round (Round of 64)
Venue: Melbourne Park, Melbourne, Australia
Category: Grand Slam
Surface: Hard (Outdoor)
Prize Money: A$ 96,500,000
Live telecast: USA - ESPN & Tennis Channel | UK - Eurosport | India - Sony Sports & Sony Liv
Jessica Pegula vs Elise Mertens preview
Seventh-seeded Jessica Pegula will continue her Australian Open campaign as he takes on Belgian Elise Mertens in the second round.
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Pegula played at the Adelaide International before coming to Melbourne. The American player won against Maria Sakkari, Ashlyn Krueger, and Yulia Putintseva to reach her 15th career final. However, she lost 3-6,6-4,1-6 against Madison Keys.
At the Australian Open, the seventh seed had a dominant start as she won 6-3,6-0 against Australia's Maya Joint. The American player dominated her Australian opponent on every metric possible, winning 80 percent of her first serve points, 48 percent of the total return points, and breaking her opponent five times in the match. Pegula hit 14 winners and won 60 points compared to Joint's 37.
Elise Mertens, on the other hand, entered the Australian Open in red-hot form. The Belgian player started off her 2025 season with a final run at the Hobart International. She got the better of the likes of Nuria Diaz, Renata Zarazua, Veronika Kudermetova, and Maya Joint to reach the final. She lost 4-6, 6-3, 0-6 to McCartney Kessler.
Mertens then began her Australian Open campaign with a 4-6 7-6 (8),6-4 win over Viktorija Golubic. It was a hard-fought match for the Belgian player as she won two points less than her Swiss opponent. However, the one small point of difference was in the case of the return points, as Mertens won 39 percent of her return points compared to her opponent's 36 percent.
Jessica Pegula vs Elise Mertens head-to-head
Mertens has won all her three matches against Pegula and has a 3-0 lead in the head-to-head. The last win for the Belgian came at the 2023 French Open, where she won 6-1, 6-3 against the American player.
Jessica Pegula vs Elise Mertens odds
(Odds are sourced from BetMGM)
Jessica Pegula vs Elise Mertens prediction
Pegula has a 13-5 record in Melbourne, with three consecutive quarterfinal appearances (2021-2023) being her best result. Overall, the American player has reached 12 hard-court finals in her career, winning five titles. The last hard-court title came for her at the 2024 Canadian Open, where she won 6-3, 2-6, 6-1 against Amanda Anisimova in the final.
Meanwhile, Mertens has a 19-7 win/loss ratio at the Australian Open. Her best result at a Grand Slam came in Melbourne when she reached the semifinal in 2018. In general, the Belgian has 9 hard court finals in her resume with 6 titles. She is an accomplished doubles player who is the defending champion in Melbourne, having won the women's doubles title alongside Hsieh Su-wei last year.
The head-to-head favors Mertens, but Pegula is one of the top players in the world right now and the seeded player. That should give the American player the advantage in the upcoming match.
Pick- Pegula to win in three sets
