–
The US Open, which was one of only two tournaments young Canadian Marina Stakusic played this summer, didn’t end well. A second-round loss, a back issue, some tears.
But the 20-year-old began a rebound at the WTA 500 Guadalajara Open Tuesday
Stakusic won only her second WTA Tour-level match of the year in a 3-6, 7-5, 6-4 victory over the much higher-ranked Polina Kudermetova, to advance to a second-round encounter with No. 3 seed Jelena Ostapenko.
Now, that sounds like a close score. But it was even more dramatic than that.
Kudermetova was up 6-3, 5-1 and serving for the match in the second set – only to be denied as Stakusic won six straight games.
AND, at 4-4 in the third set, they were interrupted more than 90 minutes by rain.
When they came back, Kudermetova was serving at love-40.
She won just one point, and made four errors, to basically hand the match to Stakusic. Who will happily take it.
There were 23 double faults in all – nine by Kudermetova, 14 for Stakusic.
There were 28 break points, and 16 breaks (eight each).

Mexico a Marina happy place
Stakusic is now officially on a bit of a roll. She beat Amandine Hesse of France and No. 8 seed Iryna Shymanovich of Russia (4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (4) with more rain delays) in the qualifying to get to the main draw.
And she has had some good results, historically, in Mexico.
She made the quarterfinals of a WTA 125 in Puerto Vallarta earlier this year – one of only two tournaments this year in which she won back-to-back matches at any level, and this one included a walkover.
And she won a WTA 125 in Tampico last October.
Stakusic made the quarterfinals at this same WTA 500 Guadalajara tournament a year ago.
Notably, in the second round, she upset Ostapenko, then ranked No. 12, in a third-set tiebreak – 7-0 was the score.
Is past prologue? We shall see.

More Stories
ATP Rankings Report – As of Oct. 20, 2025
WTA Rankings Report – As of Oct. 20, 2025
What a week for the Canuckians