Elise Mertens beats Iga Swiatek in Beijing and reaches WTA 1000 semifinal

Quarterfinal in Beijing

On Friday 9 October 2026, Elise Mertens beat Iga Swiatek 7-6 (7/0), 6-3 in the quarterfinals of the WTA 1000 tournament in Beijing. The match lasted 1 hour and 49 minutes. Swiatek is a former world No. 1 who is now ninth in the rankings, while Mertens, 30, is the Belgian No. 1 and ranked 19th in the world. Mertens took the opening tie-break without conceding a point, the first WTA player to win a tie-break 7-0 against Swiatek. In the second set she broke for 3-1 and held her serve to the end, facing no break point in the entire match.

Speaking after the match, Mertens said:

I'm very happy with my victory.

It is the first time in Mertens's career that she has beaten Swiatek, who had won their two earlier meetings, in 2024 and 2025. Before this match Mertens had not taken a set from Swiatek in those two meetings.

Path to the quarterfinal

Mertens reached the quarterfinal after beating Jelena Ostapenko in the third round, a match in which she lost a set. Katie Volynets, ranked 74th, also pushed her in an earlier round. In the round of 16 she beat Coco Gauff, ranked fourth. Mertens has now won her last three matches against players from the top 10, including Elena Rybakina, the current world No. 1, at Wimbledon. Her win over Swiatek is her third victory of the event over a player who has won a Grand Slam tournament.

Semifinal and rankings

Mertens will face Zheng Qinwen, ranked 54th, in the semifinal on Saturday. Zheng beat Elina Svitolina 6-3, 7-6 (8/6) earlier on Friday. Zheng is the Olympic champion from Paris, invited to the tournament by its organizers, and she is trying to reach her first final in Beijing after losing in the semifinal here two years ago. Mertens will also play doubles alongside Diana Shnaider in the semifinal. The other semifinal pits Mirra Andreeva, ranked fifth in the world, against the Czech player Nikola Bartunkova, ranked 34th.

Mertens would rise to 14th in the world if she loses in the next round, her best ranking since May 2021. Her career best is 12th, reached in January 2019. This will be her third appearance in the semifinal of a WTA 1000 event, after Cincinnati in 2020 and Dubai in 2021, and she has never reached a final at that level.

Swiatek's season standing

Swiatek is tenth in the Race, the season standings that determine the eight players who qualify for the year-end Masters. To improve her position she needs points at the WTA 1000 in Wuhan (12-18 October) and at the WTA 500 events in Ningbo (19-25 October) and Tokyo (26 October to 1 November). Swiatek has not missed the Masters in any of the last five editions.

Mertens on her performance

Mertens said she had been nervous near the end of the match and worked to stay composed.

I was a bit nervous at the end, so I tried to stay calm.

She credited her team for helping her through the tighter moments. Reflecting on Swiatek, she said that Iga is a great player and that she had to keep giving everything she could.

Iga is a great player, so I had to keep giving as much as I could.

Asked about the result, she said she was still processing it.

I still can't believe it.