The WTA tournaments in Mexico, Tunisia and Slovenia reached their quarter-final stages on Thursday…
I’m feeling amazing. A little bit overwhelmed. It’s, kind of, just hard to believe, a little bit, just because I had some opportunities in the second [set] to close it out. But, in general, I’m super happy to get through that match. It was a tough one, but the biggest win of my career, so it’s amazing. Marina Stakusic
Guadalajara | WTA 500 Guadalajara Open Akron presented by Santander
Top seed Jelena Ostapenko from Latvia failed to get off the mark in Guadalajara on Thursday, where she was upset in her opener by 19-year old Canadian wild-card, Marina Stakusic, 6-3 5-7 7-6(0), after serving up 17 double-faults in the match.
The teenager claimed the biggest win in her career, coming from 0-4 down in the third set, and fighting off 4 match points at 3-5 before forcing the breaker, which she took without loss of a single point.
“I’m feeling amazing,” Stakusic said after her milestone win. “A little bit overwhelmed. It’s, kind of, just hard to believe, a little bit, just because I had some opportunities in the second [set] to close it out.
“But, in general, I’m super happy to get through that match. It was a tough one, but the biggest win of my career, so it’s amazing.”
Stakusic moves into the first WTA quarter-final of her burgeoning career with the 3-hour and 4-minute upset of the 2017 Roland Garros champion, who is ranked 12 in the world.
Ranked 155, Stakusic is the first wild-card entry to reach the quarters in Guadalajara, and will play Magdalena Frech, after the 5th-seeded Pole saw off American Ashley Krueger, 3-6 6-3 6-1, in the late night match.
Frech was one of the 3 players that the young Canadian defeated at the Billie Jean King Cup Finals last year on her debut.
Earlier on Thursday, 4th seed Caroline Garcia from France held off Japan’s Ena Shibajara, 7-6(3) 7-6(5), to also progress to the quarter-finals, where she will meet Marie Bouzkova, the Czech 6th seed, who breezed past Italian qualifier Lucrezia Stefanini, 6-2 6-1, in the first match of the day.
“We played very different styles, she is a player that does not suit me, I need to play solid, and I will see what I can do differently to beat her,” said Garcia, who is 0-4 against Bouzkova.
Against Shibahara, Garcia ran out to a 4-1 lead in the first set tiebreak before pocketing the opener.
Neither broke serve in the second, and Garcia slipped behind 4-3 in the ensuing breaker before winning 3 straight points to eventually win on her 2nd match point in straight sets.
The Frenchwoman fired 10 aces and saved 5 of 6 break points in the 1 hour, 50 minute battle.
30-year-old Garcia is playing in her first quarter-final since she advanced to the Rouen semi-finals last April.
© Clive Brunskill/Getty Images
Monastir | WTA 250 Jasmin Open by Lilas
Croatian qualifier Antonia Ruzic eased past Britain’s Lily Miyazaki, 6-3 6-1, in Monastir, Tunisia, on Thursday, leaving compatriot Sonay Kartal the sole British representative left in the singles at the Jasmin Open.
Miyazaki, the British No 5, was aiming to reach the Last 8 of a WTA Tour tournament for the first time, but Ruzic, ranked 173 in the world, took just 71 minutes to complete a straight sets win over the 28-year-old.
In the quarter-finals, Ruzic takes on No 7 seed Lucia Bronzetti from Italy, who beat America’s Ann Li, 6-4 7-6(3).
Bronzetti, who led Li 4-1 in the second set, needed a tiebreak to quell the American’s challenge in straight sets, and make it into her second quarter-final on 2024.
Germany’s Eva Lys toppled No 1 seed Elise Mertens, 1-6 6-2 7-6(4), in the round of 16, speeding out to a 4-0 lead in the first set before the Belgian won the next 4 games.
Mertens briefly led the deciding set 6-5, but Lys forced a tiebreak that swung back and forth until the German took the final 3 points to cement the upset win.
The Belgian out-aced her opponent, 7-0, but she also coughed up 7 double-faults, and won a mere third of her second-serve points, just 13 of 39.
Lys meets Zeynep Somnez in the Last 8, after the Turkish qualifier moved into her first career WTA quarter-final with a 6-4 1-6 6-3 upset win over No 6 seed Greet Minnen, the 22-year-old’s first win in 3 meetings with the Belgian.
Sonmez is the first Turkish player to reach a WTA quarter-final since 2017, when both Cagla Buyukakcay and Basak Eraydin made the Istanbul Last 8.
In the doubles, Jodie Burrage, the last Brit standing, bowed out alongside Bronzetti in the quarters to Russian Anna Blinkova & Mayar Sherif from Egypt, 4-6 6-4 [10-3], on Thursday.
WTA 125 | WTA 2024 Zavarovalnica Sava Ljubljana
Elsewhere, playing on clay, Britain’s Francesca Jones moved into the Last 8 of the WTA 125 event in Ljubljana in Slovenia after beating Croatia’s Petra Marcinko, 7-5 6-1. The match was completed indoors after rain prevented outdoor play.
In the 1st-round, the British No 6 upset top-seeded Chloe Paquet from France, 6-2 6-3.
23-year old Bradford-born Jones next will face Victoria Jimenez Kasintseva of Andorra.
2nd-seeded Nuria Sorribes Tormo is one of just 3 seeded players still left standing in the Last 8, and they are all in her lower half of the draw.
Rain washed out play in the WTA 125 event in Ljubljana, Slovenia, on Thursday