The grass-court season opens in Den Bosch with Elise Mertens expected to edge Bianca Andreescu in three sets on Day 1 of the WTA 250. Six matches are scheduled for the first day, and Mertens arrives as the player to beat after winning the tournament last year in one of the wildest finishes of the season.
That title still shapes how she is viewed here. Last year, Mertens survived 11 match points in the semifinals against Ekaterina Alexandrova before lifting the trophy, a run that made her the most proven name in the draw as the 2026 swing begins. Andreescu, meanwhile, is a former finalist in Den Bosch, which gives the matchup real weight even if the forecast still leans toward Mertens.
There is also a reason the prediction is not a simple call. Mertens came out of the clay season with a 5-4 record and was beaten by Maja Chwalinska in the early rounds of the French Open, so she is not arriving on a clean streak. Andreescu did win two main-draw matches on clay before losing in French Open qualifying, but that still left her with a subpar clay-court campaign and outside the top 100 for a year. The preview, though, still lands on Mertens in three sets.
That is what makes Day 1 in Den Bosch more than a routine opener. Mertens has already shown she can survive pressure here, and Andreescu has enough pedigree on the grass to make the matchup uncomfortable. But the weight of recent results, and the memory of what Mertens did here in 2025, point to a player who starts the season with more trust behind her than the former finalist opposite the net.
The question now is whether Mertens can turn a favorable forecast into another winning start when the first ball is struck in Den Bosch. If she does, she strengthens her hold on a tournament that has already produced one of her most dramatic triumphs and sets herself up as one of the early markers of the 2026 grass-court swing.
