UNITED CUP

January 6, 2026

Christopher Heyman

Zizou Bergs

Elise Mertens

Team Belgium

Press Conference

Team Belgium - 3

Team Canada - 0

THE MODERATOR: Captain, great result for Belgium, qualifying for the quarterfinals. Give us your thoughts on all the matches today.

CHRISTOPHER HEYMAN: All the matches? Well, we had a lot of action.

We were ready for it, as I said in the last media event, that Belgium doesn't back down. We proved it today. We're really happy with that.

Zizou, incredible performance. High-quality match from start to finish. Elise was up for the challenge to continue. Yeah, very happy with that. The doubles was a nice finishing touch to seal the deal, let's say.

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Zizou, obviously you were here not too long ago. What about this court is a good luck charm or gives your team a lot of success?

ZIZOU BERGS: Sydney vibes, you know. I guess we have the experience of a nice encounter here against Australia. I said before starting this week, it's still a different format, a different team.

Eventually you also need to fight. We did that. Since yesterday we've been saying Stunty Tuesday to make it happen today. This is how it started in the morning, how we kept going.

It's nice to say at the end of the mixed doubles that we did it. The vibes are good.

Q. Zizou, you've been named in the Davis Cup team, away on clay, Bulgaria. How much does it mean to you to represent Belgium in Davis Cup?

ZIZOU BERGS: Playing for my country is very important for me. It helped me a lot in the past to become a better tennis player. If you look at this event, it helped me again today playing these mixed doubles, getting experience for doubles, but also taking responsibility whenever it matters to win your matches.

It's just a very important event for me in general. If I can play for my country, for some reason it always helps me to be a better tennis player.

For me until now it's never been any doubt to play or not to play because I still have to give a lot back to my country. If I got a chance, I will for sure take it.

Q. Elise, when you come up against a player like Mboko, she's still so new, you have all the experience behind you, how do you adjust the mindset going into a match against somebody who has nothing to lose?

ELISE MERTENS: Well, of course we look at the matches a little bit how she plays. But I think the most important thing is how I step on court. We had that 1-Love thanks to Zizou. That also gave me a little bit of freedom. I know we had to win this tie with a 3-Love. I think you still focus on your own game, what you can do. You give yourself 100%, which we did. The team behind me gave me a lot of energy.

Yeah, she's a young player. She is really doing well, up in the rankings. Yeah, I have a little bit of experience now. I'll try to use it in my advantage.

Q. Zizou, what was it like playing that match today, going out knowing what had to be done to be able to have that chance of qualifying?

ZIZOU BERGS: I guess I also love pressure. When the pressure is high, I always know to be more performant [sic] than usual. It definitely helped me. I had to fine-tune a little bit on what happened to China. It was a decent match. Same with mixed doubles. We looked at it back, tried to improve, communicate about what happened, tried to be stronger today.

Yeah, managed to be really strong today against Felix. And also in this mixed doubles, I was better than against China.

This is something we have to keep doing now. We have a little bit more time again. Tomorrow we will have again a day off. Hopefully we will be ready again for next opponent.

Q. Are you looking at your father's tweets?

ZIZOU BERGS: No. Just the messages he sends me.

Q. He's done it again, giving you praise.

ZIZOU BERGS: He's giving me praise?

Q. Did you have a chat with him after Davis Cup last year when he put that open letter out?

ZIZOU BERGS: Yeah, I mean, I saw it passing by. Obviously we talk a lot. We went together on holidays as well. The great thing about it is I know how important for him it is that I have fun on the tennis court. He's so passionate about it.

Eventually what really matters for him and my family is that I enjoy myself on the tennis court, that I can be who I want to be. That's how he's going to look at me.

Most of times in Davis Cup I really enjoy myself. I'm a big fighter. For him, those values are very important. Then he's a little bit more proud than a normal tournament.