Top seed Jelena Ostapenko has crashed out of the Guadalajara Open after failing to convert four match points in the second round.
The world No.12 suffered a shock 6-3, 5-7, 7-6(0), loss to Canadian wildcard Marina Stakusic who had previously never beaten a top 20 player. Ostapenko looked to be on course for victory after storming to a 4-0 lead in the decider before losing four out of the next five games played. She failed to convert one match point when leading 5-4 and another three when up 6-5. Then in the tiebreaker, she was thrashed by Stakusic who won seven points in a row.
Ostapenko has now lost four out of her last five matches played since reaching the quarter-finals at Wimbledon. All of those losses have been to players ranked outside of the top 50 with Stakusic being the lowest ranked at 155th in the world. Her only victory during this period was in Toronto when she beat Paula Badosa.
As for Stakusic, she is through to her first WTA quarter-final at the age of 19. She is only the fourth player from her country to reach the last eight of a WTA 500 event after Eugenie Bouchard, Leylah Fernandez and Aleksandra Wozniak.
“I’m feeling amazing,” wtatennis.com quoted Stakusic as saying after her latest 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 will next play fifth seed Magdalena Frech who defeated Ashlyn Krueger 3-6, 6-3, 6-1, in her second round match. The Pole is bidding to reach her second WTA final this season after Prague where she was denied the title by Magda Linette.
Elsewhere, Caroline Garcia has booked a showdown against Marie Bouzkova. Garcia, who is the fourth seed, battled her way past Japanese qualifier Ena Shibahara 7-6(3), 7-6(5). Meanwhile, Bouzkova experienced less difficulty during her 6-2, 6-1, win over Lucrezia Stefanini.
In their head-to-head, Bouzkova leads Garcia 4-0.
