Stats corner: Mertens maintains head-to-head dominance over Pegula

Elise Mertens continues to have the upper hand in her rivalry with Jessica Pegula. Belgium's Mertens posted a 7-5, 6-1 victory over the No. 3-seeded American to reach the Round of 16 at the Internazionali BNL d'Italia.

Rome: Draws | Scores | Order of play

No. 25 seed Mertens took 1 hour and 24 minutes to notch her latest win over Pegula in Saturday's nightcap on Campo Centrale. Mertens now leads their head-to-head by a commanding 4-1.

After Mertens won their first three meetings, Pegula finally beat the Belgian for the first time at this year's Australian Open. However, Mertens avenged that loss on Saturday, making the Rome Round of 16 for the second time. Mertens' career-best showing at Rome was reaching the 2020 quarterfinals.

Here are more notable stats from Mertens' upset on paper:

14: Mertens ended a long drought with the triumph: she had lost her last 14 matches against Top 10 players. In fact, before Saturday, her most recent Top 10 win also came over Pegula, nearly two full years ago at 2023 Roland Garros. 

4: Mertens was a perfect 4-for-4 on break points converted in the match. She also had 19 winners on the day, well in front of Pegula's 11 winners.

131: Four of Mertens' winners were aces, bringing her 2025 total up to 131. Only Clara Tauson (163) and Madison Keys (139) have hit more aces than Mertens this year.

2: Mertens becomes only the second woman from Belgium to notch a Top 5 win at the Internazionali BNL d'Italia. The first was Justine Henin in 2002, when she beat another Belgian, Kim Clijsters, in the semifinals.

28: Pegula still has the second-most main-draw match-wins on tour this year, with 28 (trailing only Aryna Sabalenka's 32). However, she has stalled a bit since hitting the European red clay, where she has gone 3-3 so far this swing.

2-0: Mertens will now take on No. 13 seed Diana Shnaider for a spot in the quarterfinals. That is another healthy head-to-head for Mertens, who has won both of their previous meetings in straight sets, including on Stuttgart's indoor clay last month.

7: Another win would put Mertens into her 7th career WTA 1000 quarterfinal. Her career-best performances at WTA 1000 events are two semifinals, at 2020 Cincinnati and 2021 Dubai.