Marina Stakusic scored the biggest win of her tennis career on Thursday. In the quarterfinals of the 2024 Guadalajara Open in Mexico, Stakusic defeated number one seed Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia, the 2017 French Open champion, 6-3, 5-7, 7-6. In the third set tiebreak, Stakusic was outstanding, winning all seven points 7-0.
A major reason for Stakusic’s victory is that she saw Ostapenko’s serve very well. She managed eight break points against Ostapenko out of 18 opportunities. To put Stakusic’s victory in perspective, Stakusic is ranked 155th in the world, while Ostapenko is ranked 12th.
Stakusic will now face the 43rd ranked player and the 5th ranked player in Guadalajara, Poland’s Magdalena Frech. Stakusic won their only meeting so far. That was at the 2023 Billie Jean King Cup last November, when Stakusic won 4-6, 7-5, 6-3 in Seville, Spain.
Interestingly, only two wildcards were awarded and one of them went to Stakusic. The other went to Ana Sofia Sanchez from Mexico.
All four quarterfinals will take place on Friday. The other three matches will pit fourth-seeded Frenchwoman and 2022 United States Open semifinalist Caroline Garcia against sixth-seeded Czech Marie Bouzkova, Colombian Camila Osorio against Russian Kamilla Rakhimova, and Italian and 2022 French Open semifinalist Martina Trevisan against Australian qualifier Olivia Gadecki.
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