There were shocks in the WTA Guadalajara Open Akron presented by Santander on Thursday, when both top seeds, Elise Mertens and Veronika Kudermetova, fall out of their first appearance in Mexico, felled by Elsa Jacquemot and Victoria Jimenez Kastseva, within an hour apart.
Mertens, the no. 1 seed from Belgium, was upset by the French Jacquemot, 4-6 6-3 6-4, after a 25-hour struggle of 2 hours in one of the biggest surprises of the tournament.
The competition was completed on Thursday, a day after the rain interrupted at night, when Jacquemot completed her back-gain to abolish the favorite of the tournament.
It all started at the Akron Stadium in the American Tennis Center Pan on Wednesday, when Mertens, the World No 22, maintained its superiority against no. 83, firing 5 ACEs and took 2 service pauses to grab the opener.
At the start of the second, they both broke down before Jacquemot went on, 3-2, when the rain arrived and the game was suspended.
On Thursday, the Belgian was irregularly resumption, so that 62 non-forced errors were sustained in total, while Jacquemot won 8 of the 10 games played to establish a healthy advantage, which extended her lead with an early break for 4-2, and are able to level the match on a set of all and a third set.
Mertens was broken again early in the decision maker, and despite her efforts to regain control, she suffered a break that ran down 1-5, that was when the Belgian brought a heroic back, which created 6 knits in the 8th game and the last gap to 3-5 limited to 3-5.
She then held her 4-5, but Jacquemot broke every hope for leveling by eliminating Mertens at her 2nd match point to reach the quarterfinals.
After a total of 2 hours and 25 minutes of play, Jacquemot needed each piece of the pillow before he finally finished her career-best victory through ranking.
The 22-year-old French woman took out the 2023 champion Maria Sakkari from Greece in the 1st round, followed by the title favorite in the 2nd, and the next will meet the 6th placed Tatjana Maria from Germany in the last 8, looking for further surprises.
20-year-old qualifying match Victoria Jimenez Kasintseva produced a dominant 2nd round upset victory over no. 2 seed, Veronika Kudermetova, in Mexico
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Jacquemot and Victoria Jimenez Kasintseva were former junior stars, both of whom won Singles titles in Grand Slams in 2020, and now their 2nd career, and largest, quarterfinals of their young career, opposite each other.
Jimenez Kasintseva last reached the last 8 of a tour level event 3 years ago in Seoul as a happy loser, while Jacquemot got this deep during an event last month at the WTA 250 tennis in the Land event in Cleveland.
The left-handed by Andorra, who is at 123, won the 2nd placed older Kudermetova-sister, Victoria, who stands at 26, who needs an hour and 31 minutes to take her 6-4 6-2 victory, which was her first victory of the career.
It was the 2nd consecutive defeat of Kudermetova by a player outside the top 100, and the difference in rankings was not noticeable on this day.
The 20-year-old Jimenez Kasintseva, a qualifying match, arrived with confidence in the court and dominated from the start.
Although the Russian usually succeeded in keeping itself out of trouble often, thanks to 8 Azen in the match, she was confronted with a triple breaking point in the 10th game of the first set and collapsed.
The Andorran broke early in the second to take a 3-0 lead, which she extended to 5-2 after scoring a second break to end the game, leaving a distraught Kudermetova in her wake.
Jimenez Kasintseva saved all 4 breaking points with which she was confronted and benefited from a collateral day by Kudermetova, who served only 47% of her first.
Emilana Arango, a finalist earlier this year in Merida, entered another WTA 500 quarter-final in Mexico on Thursday with a straight-set victory over Storm Hunter in Guadalajara
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There are so far 5 unwawed quarter-finalists in Guadalajara, such as Emilana Arango from Colombia, the 17-year-old American IVA Jovic and Czech wildcard Nikola Bartunkova are also until the last 8.
The 24-year-old Arango, a finalist earlier this year in Merida, illuminated the storm hunter of Australia, 6-2 6-2, in 67 minutes, and waited for the winner of the last 2nd round game between Jelena Ostapenko, the no. 3 Seed from Latvia and Canadian qualifier, Marina Stakusic, who was held until Friday.
The 17-year-old IVA Jovic region nr. 8 Seed Camila Osorio in straight sets to reach its first career tour level quarterfinals on the WTA 500 Guadalajara Open Akron.
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Jovic made it no. 8 seeds from Streek, Camila Osorio, who also comes from Colombia, 6-4 6-2, to reach her first career Hologic WTA Tour level quarter finals on a rain delayed Thursday.
The talented 17-year-old American is part of the next wave of talents on the Tour, and with the departure of many of the top names it could be her time to shine.
It is a week of scoops for Jovic, who will strengthen her place in the top 100 with her run while she stands opposite Jimenez Kasintseva for a place in the semi -final.
4th Seed Magdalena Frech opened her Guadalajara Open Akron title defense by coming from 2-4 in the second set and saving 2 set points in the Tiebreak, to beat the Lucrezia Stefanini qualification in straight sets and to continue to her 2nd quarter final of 2025.
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Magdalena Frech, Polish no. 4 Seed, was the last winner of the night and won the Italian qualifying match Lucrezia Stefanini, 6-1 7-6 (6), to open her Guadalajara Open Akron title defense.
Stefanini led 4-2, 15-40, and saved a match point at 4-5 with a net cord, before Frech pushed the affair into the breaker, which saved 2 set points to move on to her 2nd quarter finals of 2025, where she will meet Bartunkova.
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