Thursday's action on courts in Zapopan brought some significant shake-up in the draw just before entering the phase of quarterfinals. Two top seeds got eliminated in their first appearance on court in second round. Elise Mertens did not manage to close the match against Elsa Jacquemot where she led by set up after suspension on Wednesday, while Veronika Kudermetova faced straightforward upset from Victoria Jimenez Kasintseva. The reigning champion is still there though, as Magdalena Frech secured the late-night victory over Lucrezia Stefanini.
Top seeds’ nightmare on Thursday
Elise Mertens looked like having a control over the match against world number 83 on Wednesday, when the play got suspended due to rain conditions. The following day looked much differently. Despite a good start of second set by Mertens, who gained the early break advantage which might mean she was on the one-way traffic for easy routine victory, the French has lifted up her level, capitalizing on the slump of consistency from Mertens. Jacquemot won 4 consecutive games and forced a decider, where she continued a positive trend from the start. Mertens was clearly far from her proper level, being vulnerable on serve and not putting pressure on the lower-ranked opponent, who quickly gained 5-1 lead in third set. Mertens tried to bounce back but it was quite too late, as Jacquemot sealed a huge victory with a score 4-6 6-3 6-4. It was not a pretty match with 19 double faults committed by both players (9 from Mertens, 10 from Jacquemot), however the French can be proud of making two upsets in a row after eliminating Maria Sakkari in first round with a crushing score 6-2 6-0. Guadalajara is not a lucky place for Mertens, as it's her third consecutive loss in second round of this tournament despite being a top seed this year. Jacquemot will play against 6th seed Tatjana Maria in the quarterfinal on Friday. The German has displayed a good form in first two matches, scoring straight set victories over Zenyep Sonmez and Rebecca Marino.
Victoria Jimenez Kasintseva has earned her most valuable victory this year, eliminating the second seed and world number 26 - Veronika Kudermetova. The 20 years-old has not scored any single WTA main draw level victory before coming to Guadalajara, grinding her rank mostly in challengers and ITF. However, this match had quite a qulity in compare to Mertens vs Jacquemot, as both the players scored more than 70% of first serve points. Kudermetova got eliminated despite scoring 8 aces to just 2 double faults in a match was a confident serving performance from both from the start. Jimenez Kasintseva gained the first break in 10th game, which granted her the win of first set. She followed that with a break in another service game of Kudermetova, which in addition of defending a few breakpoints, gave her the advantage she did not slip away till the end, adding another break in last game which settled the score by 6-4 6-2.
Jimenez Kastintseva will face Iva Jovic in the quarterfinal clash of youngsters, after the 17 years-old defeated 8th seed Camila Osorio by 6-4 6-2. Jovic was considered as one of the dark horses in the bottom half of a draw, which meant that victory was even not rated as an upset due to pre-match odds. Both will compete in their first quarterfinal of WTA 500 grade tournament, while the representative of Andorra can jump into top 100 of the rankings in case of eventual victory over Jovic.
Title defense is on despite a scrappy match
Magdalena Frech has passed her first hurdle on the road to title defence, defeating Lucrezia Stefanini by 6-1 7-6(6) in a late-night match which got interrupted by the rain and ended up with a dramatic second set which lasted almost 1.5 hours. Frech was a favorite of that encounter despite her poor winning record this year. Her opponent have had clear serving liabilities which got proved in first set, won by the Pole quite easily despite losing one break. Second set was much more bumpy road, even excluding the rain delay. Stefanini was moving up a break three times, with Frech always coming back level on the scoreline. The Pole could close that match earlier, but did not convert matchpoint on the Italian's serve in 10th game. After forcing a tiebreak, the world number 30 has started to run away with a score, but lost 4 points in a row to face 2 set points. Stefanini failed to prolong this match, as she did not convert her chances. Frech was a cold steel during such a crucial points, defended two setpoints and sealed the victory after the long rally Stefanini's serve which was quite a trademark of that match. It was far from a pretty performance - both players were hugely struggling with their serve. Frech has even scored higher rate of 2nd serve points (54.8%) than first serve (52.5%) and faced as many as 30 pressure points on serve. Stefanini has still not prevailed to score her first ace on WTA Tour level this season, tracking even lower numbers than Frech - 47% of first serve and 39% of 2nd serve, 38 pressure points faced.
Regardless of the on-court events overview, the Pole has survived a huge pressure related with first match in tournament which has much on stake for her, while defending 500 points. She can make up quite much of those, as the bottom half has opened wide. Frech will be an obvious favorite against the 19 years-old Nikola Bartunkova ranked 228th in WTA list.
Ostapenko still yet to kick-off
The inclement weather has naggled the venue of Guadalajara Akron Open on Thursday same as it did in previous days. This forced the organizers to reschedule match between Jelena Ostapenko and Marina Stakusic on Friday. The winner of that tie will play against Emiliana Arango. Stakusic has already performed an amazing comeback against Polina Kudermetova in first round, which you could read all about in the recap from Guadalajara posted by us yesterday. Interestingly, Ostapenko and Stakusic has already met in Guadalajara last year in second round, where the Canadian delivered an upset after a thrilling match ended up in third set tiebreak after more than 3 hours of battle. Emiliana Arango does also love to play on hard courts in Mexico, so the 3rd seed faces quite a challenge to scrape through the opening rounds.