Sofia Kenin’s impressive form continued in the North American continent as she downed sixth seed Jelena Ostapenko in the third-round of the Guadalajara Open. The American won 6-4, 7-5 in an hour and 44 minutes against the Latvian.
Ostapenko dropped only nine points behind her first serve, winning 33 of 41 first-serve points. Kenin won 41 of 58 first-serve points. However, the former Australian Open winner did better to score points off her second serve. She won 12 of 20 second-serve points and 23 of 35 points on return on Ostapenko’s second serve. Kenin finished the encounter with a positive difference of 16 – she had 19 winners and merely three unforced errors. Ostapenko, meanwhile, hit 36 winners and had 25 unforced errors.
The key difference in the match was that while Kenin was able to make good of any opportunities that came her way, the former French Open titlist wasn’t able to do the same.
Kenin will now play Canadian Leylah Fernandez for a chance to reach the semi-finals. This is the first time in almost four years that the 24-year-old’s made it this far in a WTA event. The last time she’d done so was at the Western & Southern Open, in Cincinnati, in 2019.
Fernandez defeated Emma Navarro 6-2, 6-3 in their third-round match.
The two top seeds posted opposing results in their respective third-round matches. The top-most seed in the draw, Ons Jabeur crashed out while the second-seeded Greek, Maria Sakkari made it safely through.
Guadalajara Open: Martina Trevisan pips Ons Jabeur
Martina Trevisan came from a set and break down to score a win over the Tunisian, 6-7(4), 5-7, 6-3 after three hours and two minutes of play. Jabeur had a chance to serve out the match in the 10th game of the second set and was leading the Italian 30-0 but the latter flipped the script on her, eventually riding high on that comeback note until the end.
Trevisan will take on Caroline Dolehide next. The American posted an upset of her own, over eighth seed Ekaterina Alexandrova. The world no. 47 had a routine 6-1, 6-2 win after exactly an hour of play.
Sakkari also had a straightforward 6-2, 6-2 win over Camila Giorgi in just an hour and six minutes. The higher-ranked player hit eight winners, three more than her opponent’s five. She, however, had 11 unforced errors, 18 fewer than what the Italian had, across the match.
The world no. 9 will play a debutant in the WTA 1000 quarter-finals for a chance to reach the semis in Mexico for the second straight year. Colombian Emiliana Arango made the most of her chances to take down Taylor Townsend in their third-round clash, 7-5, 1-6, 6-4.
Meanwhile, Victoria Azarenka and Caroline Garcia set up a meeting at the Guadalajara Open quarters. The 10th seed came through against seventh-seeded Veronika Kudermetova 6-2, 6-1. In the second set, Kudermetova broke Azarenka in the first game. As it turned out, it was the only game she won across the set. Lastly, the third-seeded Garcia won against Hailey Baptiste, 7-5, 6-4.