Thursday\u2019s pivotal match could well be the WTA Tour Driven by Mercedes-Benz meeting between Elise Mertens and Barbora Krejcikova. Hard to believe, but the 30-year-old veterans have played more than 1,200 combined singles matches — and never, ever faced each other.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Krejcikova, a two-time Grand Slam singles champion, is coming off an injury-riddled season in which she only played 36 matches. Before the event, she was asked what her expectations were for 2026.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t really have any, to be honest,\u201d Krejcikova told wtatennis.com. \u201cI\u2019m just going out, trying to have fun. I have great people around me right now. I\u2019m enjoying my time traveling and playing some matches.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I can stay healthy and win some matches \u2026 that would be great. For me, from my perspective after turning 30, I want to enjoy the time I have left in this career. That\u2019s how I approach it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Krejcikova has won both her singles matches, most recently 6-4, 6-1 over Australia\u2019s Maya Joint — Czechia\u2019s only point in the tie that sent both teams through to the quarterfinals.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was trying to be aggressive from the start, and it\u2019s nice to have some matches under my belt,\u201d Krejcikova said afterward. \u201cI felt a little better on the court today.\u201d<\/p>\n
Belgium came through with a resounding 3-0 win over Canada to win Group B when all three teams, including China, went 1-1.<\/p>\n
Mertens, with two singles wins, has contributed three of Belgium\u2019s four points. She was a 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 winner over Canada\u2019s Victoria Mboko.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know we had to win this tie with a 3-love,\u201d Mertens told reporters afterward. \u201cI think you still focus on your own game, what you can do. She’s a young player. Yeah, I have a little bit of experience now.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou give yourself 100 percent, which we did. The team behind me gave me a lot of energy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Schedule: Sydney quarterfinal No. 1: Belgium (1-1) vs. Czechia (1-1)<\/p>\n
Start Time: (5:30 p.m. local, 1:30 a.m. ET)<\/p>\n
–Men\u2019s singles: Zizou Bergs vs. Jakub Mensik<\/p>\n
–Women\u2019s singles: Elise Mertens vs. Barbora Krejcikova<\/p>\n
–Mixed doubles: Mertens and Bergs vs. Krejcikova and Mensik<\/p>\n
Brisbane International<\/p>\n
Savor this true-to-form Round of 16:<\/p>\n
Eleven of the top 12 seeds here won their second-round matches, setting up some terrific matchups featuring all seven of the top 10 players who began the tournament.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a super-strong field and there\u2019s a lot of top players,\u201d said Amanda Anisimova, probably speaking for all of them. \u201cI\u2019m really excited and looking forward to it. I hope I can play a lot of matches here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anisimova opens 2026 season with 63-minute defeat of Birrell in Brisbane<\/p>\n
Anisimova will have to play her best to reach the quarterfinals of this WTA Tour 500 event because her opponent, Marta Kostyuk, owns a 2-1 head-to-head advantage.<\/p>\n
No. 1 seed Aryna Sabalenka and Sorana Cirstea are 1-1 in previous matches. Cirstea defeated Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the first round and upset No. 14 seed Jelena Ostapenko in the second.<\/p>\n
No. 3 seed Elena Rybakina has a challenging matchup against No. 15 Paula Badosa. Rybakina leads the head-to-head 4-3.<\/p>\n
Schedule of play<\/p>\n
PAT RAFTER ARENA starts at 11 a.m.<\/p>\n
[WTA] [1] A. Sabalenka vs S. Cirstea (ROU)
[WTA] [3] E. Rybakina (KAZ) vs [15] P. Badosa (ESP)
[ATP] NB 2:30 p.m.\u00a0[Q] R. Hijikata (AUS) vs G. Mpetshi Perricard (FRA)
[ATP] NB 6:30 p.m.\u00a0[Q] R. Collignon (BEL) vs G. Dimitrov (BUL)
[WTA] NB 8 p.m.\u00a0[16] M. Kostyuk (UKR) vs [2] A. Anisimova (USA)<\/p>\n
SHOW COURT 1 starts at 11 a.m.<\/p>\n
[ATP] [7] C. Norrie (GBR) vs A. Kovacevic (USA)
[ATP] NB 12:30 p.m.\u00a0[Q] Q. Halys (FRA) vs B. Nakashima (USA)
[WTA] NB 2:30 p.m.\u00a0[12] D. Shnaider vs [5] M. Keys (USA)
[WTA] D. Yastremska (UKR) vs [4] J. Pegula (USA)
[WTA] [6] M. Andreeva vs [9] L. Noskova (CZE)\u00a0<\/p>\n
SHOW COURT 2 starts at 11 a.m.\u00a0<\/p>\n
[WTA] [4] I. Khromacheva \/ A. Panova vs L. Kichenok (UKR) \/ N. Kichenok (UKR)
[WTA] NB 12:30 p.m.\u00a0[11] K. Muchova (CZE) vs [7] E. Alexandrova
[WTA] [Q] A. Sasnovich vs [10] L. Samsonova
[WTA] [3] C. Bucsa (ESP) \/ E. Perez (AUS) vs [2] A. Danilina (KAZ) \/ A. Krunic (SRB)<\/p>\n
ASB Classic<\/p>\n
Four spots in the quarterfinals are on the line in Auckland, New Zealand.<\/p>\n
Top seed Elina Svitolina headlines the action in a match against wild card Katie Boulter. They\u2019ve previously met only once, with Svitolina winning their first-round match at the 2020 Australian Open.<\/p>\n
The opening match features No. 4 seed Alexandra Eala opposite Petra Marcinko.<\/p>\n
Schedule of play<\/p>\n
CENTRE COURT starts at 11:30 a.m.<\/p>\n
NB 1 p.m. P. Marcinko (CRO) vs [4] A. Eala (PHI)
[5] M. Linette (POL) vs E. Cocciaretto (ITA)
NB 6 p.m. [1] E. Svitolina (UKR) vs [WC] K. Boulter (GBR)
E. Seidel (GER) vs S. Kartal (GBR)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thursday\u2019s pivotal match could well be the WTA Tour Driven by Mercedes-Benz meeting between Elise Mertens and Barbora…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":400592,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[99,428,1959],"class_list":{"0":"post-400591","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-tennis","10":"tag-text"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400591","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=400591"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400591\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/400592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=400591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=400591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=400591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}