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Sloane Stephens and Marie Bouzkova will vie for the title at the Guadalajara Open on Sunday after having reached the finals on Saturday. Both players reached the last round in contrasting fashions. Earlier, in the first semi-final, the sixth-seeded Stephens won a wonky match after her opponent, Anna Kalinskaya retired right before the start of the deciding set because of an injury to her lower back.
At the time of the Russian’s retirement, both players had split sets with Kalinskaya winning the first set, 6-3 and Stephens, winning the second 7-5 after coming back from 0-3 down at the start of the set. This is the American’s first final since 2018 when she reached – and lost – the WTA Finals' title match to Elina Svitolina.
Into her 10th WTA career final, the former world no. 3 is seeking her seventh WTA title.
Guadalajara Open: Milestone awaits both Sloane Stephens and Marie Bouzkova
Meanwhile, Bouzkova, Stephens’ opponent in Mexico, will be contesting the final of a WTA event for the third time in her career.
The Czech ousted Qiang Wang in straight sets, 6-3, 6-3 in an hour and 31 minutes in their semi-final clash. Bouzkova won 71% of her first-serve points to Wang’s 56% and 44% of her second-serve points to Wang’s 42%.
Breaking Wang’s serve four times, Bouzkova conceded the hold on her serve just once out of the eight break points she faced. The world no. 96 wrapped the match with 28 winners and less than half as many unforced errors (13).
Speaking about making it to the Guadalajara Open final, Bouzkova said, “I was expecting a really tough match. I was kind of prepared that we were going to have really long rallies. I know she’s a tough opponent, so I just tried to stay there the whole time, and I just played a good match in the end.
It’s very special to be here in Guadalajara for my third final. I think I couldn’t wish for a better place to play it, and I’m just really excited for tomorrow”.