Stakusic saves four match points, ousts top seed Ostapenko in Guadalajara

Canadian 19-year-old Marina Stakusic made a stunning career breakthrough at the Guadalajara Open AKRON on Thursday night, defeating No.1 seed Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia 6-3, 5-7, 7-6(0) in a marathon second-round showdown.

Guadalajara: Scores | Order of Play | Draws

World No.155 Stakusic saved four match points in the topsy-turvy affair. The teenager initially led 6-3, 5-3, but then lost the second set and trailed 4-0 in the final set. Stakusic finally rebounded all the way back to grab the win in the third-set tiebreak.

"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 quarterfinal of her burgeoning career with the 3-hour and 4-minute upset of 2017 Roland Garros champion Ostapenko.

The victory over 12th-ranked Ostapenko also marks Stakusic's first Top 20 win of her career. She had only faced a Top 20 player once before, falling to Barbora Krejcikova in last year's Billie Jean King Cup Finals.

Back and forth: In the gripping match, Stakusic comfortably took the first set, where Ostapenko went 0-for-4 on break points. The Canadian then led 5-3 in the second set and served for a straight-sets win, but she failed to reach match point and Ostapenko pulled back on serve.

That spurred on Ostapenko, who went on a hot streak, reeling off eight consecutive games to wrest control away from the wild card. The Latvian suddenly snatched the second set and raced out to a commanding 4-0 lead in the third set.

"Inside, it was definitely a storm brewing," Stakusic said with a laugh, as she reflected on the change in fortunes. "I've been working a lot on just breathing. ... Negative thoughts will always come in, but I try to just get rid of them as quickly as I can and focus on the right things."

Stakusic won the next three games to reach 4-3, but Ostapenko eventually held her first match point at 5-3. Ostapenko failed to convert that chance, but she took another lead at 6-5 and lined up three more match points in that game.

Stakusic, however, pulled through that 18-point game, using a big backhand to force an error on her fourth break point of the tussle. After all of the back-and-forth drama, the match would be settled by a third-set tiebreak. 

That breaker, though, was over in a flash. After a wild forehand misfire by Ostapenko on the opening point, powerful returns by Stakusic pulled her through the tiebreak, and she swept every point. Ostapenko shot one final forehand wide to seal Stakusic’s biggest career win.

Stakusic finished the match 8-for-18 on break points, slightly ahead of Ostapenko's 7-for-16 break point conversion rate. Double faults were an issue for both players -- they each hit 17 -- but Ostapenko had far more total unforced errors, with 58 to Stakusic's 35.

Teen on the rise: Stakusic made her presence on tour known at the end of last year, where she helped lead Canada to their first Billie Jean King Cup title. The aforementioned loss to Krejcikova was Stakusic's only misstep at that event -- she won her other three singles matches.

Since then, it has been only up for the teenager, who started the year ranked outside the Top 250. She made her Grand Slam main-draw debut at Wimbledon, and this week becomes the fourth Canadian to make a WTA 500 quarterfinal (joining Eugenie Bouchard, Leylah Fernandez and Aleksandra Wozniak).

Stakusic's next match will be a quarterfinal meeting with No.5 seed Magdalena Frech of Poland, who defeated Ashlyn Krueger 3-6, 6-3, 6-1 in Thursday's late-night match. Frech was one of the three players Stakusic beat at Billie Jean King Cup last year.

Garcia, Bouzkova set quarterfinal clash: No.4 seed Caroline Garcia of France and No.6 seed Marie Bouzkova of the Czech Republic will face off in the Guadalajara Open AKRON quarterfinals after straight-sets wins on Thursday.

World No.30 Garcia had to battle through two tiebreak sets to end the run of Japanese qualifier Ena Shibahara 7-6(3), 7-6(5) after 1 hour and 50 minutes of play.

Former World No.4 Garcia snapped a three-match losing streak on Thursday, earning her first win since Wimbledon. This was only her second match of this summer's hard-court swing, following her first-round loss to Renata Zarazua at the US Open.

Despite the loss, former Top 5 doubles player Shibahara continues her rise up the singles rankings. Currently ranked a career-high No.169, Shibahara made her Grand Slam singles debut as a qualifier at the US Open, reaching the second round before losing to World No.1 Iga Swiatek.

World No.45 Bouzkova had an easier path into the quarterfinals, dismissing Italian qualifier Lucrezia Stefanini 6-2, 6-1 in 1 hour and 31 minutes. Bouzkova converted four of her seven break points in the match, while also saving all three break points she faced.

Bouzkova, a semifinalist at this tournament in 2022, has a commanding 4-0 head-to-head lead over Garcia, who reached this event's semifinals last year.