Seventeen years after Kim Clijsters won the Hobart International, another Belgian tennis player has put her name on the tournament trophy.
In a surprise result on Saturday the 21-year-old Elise Mertens notched up a 6-3 6-1 victory against world No.40 Monica Niculescu, and was quick to pay tribute to her hero.
"She's really a role model for me - what she achieved was amazing," Mertens said of former world No.1 Clijsters.
"I hope I can be a little bit like her ... I still have some years to go so I'll see where it ends."
A student of the Kim Clijsters Academy, Mertens recalls when she was a child watching the multiple grand slam champion and fellow Belgian Justine Henin.
"Just watching them on TV and making such great shots and winning so many matches, was incredible," Mertens said.
During Saturday's 74-minute decider, the world No.127 Mertens never looked in doubt, managing to combat Niculescu's trademark slice forehand.
After breezing through qualifying, Mertens progressed to Thursday's quarter-finals when she had expected to be at Melbourne Park, having lost in Hobart, qualifying for the Australian Open.
Instead she scored an upset straight-sets win over world No.22 and Open 19th seed Kiki Bertens.
"I beat four top-100 players this week, I had a plan and it worked," Mertens said of her debut in a WTA semi final.
Along with her $43,000 winners' cheque Mertens can expect to take a big jump into the top-100 rankings when the updated schedule is released on Monday.
Nursing an abdominal strain, Niculescu was clearly short of her best on Saturday, moving gingerly on serves and unable to put away repeated smashes.
"I was slow today," the Romanian admitted.
"I have this ab injury ... definitely I slowed down my serve and I have to play every point, there were no free points."
It's the eighth time Niculescu has contested the tournament but the first year she's progressed past the quarter-final.
Niculescu meets a yet-to-be-decided qualifier in the first round of the Australian Open and hopes to be fit.
Mertens will still head to Melbourne Park to partner America's Louisa Chirico in the doubles.
