The action in WTA 500 Guadalajara Open Akron is starting to heat up, as all the top seeds are about to play their kick-off matches in the conclusion of the second round scheduled for Thursday. The event has been regularly tormented by rain conditions since the start of the week, which has caused delays in the match schedule. Despite struggling with weather, the on-court events have already brought some significant surprises before the quarterfinals line-up emerges.
Sakkari suffers beatdown from Jacquemot
The 2023 champion and 2022 runner-up from Guadalajara has played an underwhelming season so far, however Maria Sakkari showed some promising signs of coming back to decent form during the summer campaign. Knowing how well she used to play in Mexico, she was tipped to threaten the top seed Elise Mertens in the eventual second round clash between both. This has not materialized, as Sakkari got blown off the court by world number 83 Elsa Jacquemot in one of the matches, which was played over the span of two days due to rain conditions. Jacquemot started by leading 4-1 on Monday and gave away just one more game in the completion of that match on Tuesday, winning 6-2 6-0. The French player played superbly, scoring 7 aces, facing just 3 pressure points on serve (with no break points included), winning all of them and putting immense pressure on the favored opponent throughout the short match.
Hunter's winning comeback, Stephens out
Storm Hunter has suffered a painful couple of months due to an Achilles injury which sidelined her for 10 months and sustaining a rib injury just after coming back on court this summer. The former doubles world number one received a wild card into the main draw, facing Katerina Siniakova in the first round. The Australian played just her second match on hard courts this season just after failing to get through the first round of qualies at the US Open. The odds were strongly against her (6.20 on average before the match), but Hunter managed to upset the Czech by winning 7-6(5) 4-6 6-3 after almost 2.5 hours of battle.
Sloane Stephens did not replicate the achievement of Storm Hunter, being another wild card recipient who tried to come back to competition on a positive note after 7 months of absence. The American played one of those matches which was suspended overnight while she was down a set to Lucrezia Stefanini. Stephens managed to fight back after the resumption on Wednesday to force a decider, but the Italian was a dominant force there to win it all 4-6 6-4 6-1.
Linette's struggles
Two seeded players are already out of contention. 5th seed Magda Linette withdrew during the match against Emiliana Arango, feeling unwell and suffering clear physical issues while losing the opening set to the Colombian after just 26 minutes with 0-6 on the scoreboard. It's quite a disappointing season for Linette, who was able to score some upsets this year (including the win against Jessica Pegula in Cincinnati), but could not win a single match in any of the four majors this year. Arango feels very comfortable while playing in Mexico this year, being the runner-up from Merida in February and winning the challenger in Cancun, so she can definitely think about another deep run this week. Alycia Parks is another eliminated seed after a quite straightforward loss to the 22-year-old Czech qualifier Darja Vidmanova.
Mertens yet to cross the finish line, Frech starts title defence
Thursday is the day when all four top seeds come into action after getting byes in the opening round. Elise Mertens, who is the number one in the field, has already started her match against Elsa Jacquemot by winning the opening set, but the match was suspended with a score of 6-4 *2-3 from the Belgian's perspective and will be resumed today in the afternoon local time. Magdalena Frech starts her title defence, facing Lucrezia Stefanini. The Pole defends 500 ranking points this week, however her draw looks quite formidable at this point. Frech will be the favorite against the Italian, who has noted just her second win in the main draw of WTA level events this season (out of 7 matches), competing mostly at ITF level. Serving stats look to be the Italian's liability, with an interesting fact - Stefanini is yet to score an ace after all 7 matches at the highest level this year. In case of an eventual win, Frech will face the 19-year-old ranked 228th on the WTA list - Nikola Bartunkova. The Czech is another wild card recipient and has made good use of it, moving into her first ever WTA 500 quarterfinals after defeating the aforementioned Darja Vidmanova in the second round 6-3 6-2.
Top seeds kick-off challenges
Second seed Veronika Kudermetova will face qualifier Viktoria Jimenez Kasintseva, while Jelena Ostapenko (3rd) kicks off her campaign with the match against Marina Stakusic. The Canadian performed an amazing comeback against Polina Kudermetova in the first round. The Russian was leading 6-3 5-1 just to lose 6 games in a row to Stakusic who shockingly forced a decider. The younger of the Kudermetova sisters had another chance in the third set while leading 3-1, but Stakusic made up this deficit as well, winning it all 3-6 7-5 6-4. Knowing the erratic form of Ostapenko, the Canadian qualifier is not written off to put another impressive performance on Thursday.
Before you go, you read the complex pre-tournament draw and performance analysis here -> https://www.tennisratio.com/articles/2025-09-wta-500-guadalajara-draw-frech-defends-mertens-top-seed/