French No. 4 seed Caroline Garcia got past Japan’s Ena Shibahara 7-6 (3), 7-6 (5) Thursday to advance to the quarterfinals of the Guadalajara Open Akron in Mexico.
Garcia ran out to a 4-1 lead in the first-set tiebreaker before finishing the job. Neither player broke serve in the second set, and Garcia slipped behind 4-3 in the ensuing tiebreaker before winning three straight points and eventually winning her second match point.
Garcia hit 10 aces and saved 5 of 6 break points in the one-hour, 50-minute battle.
Her quarterfinal opponent will be No. 6 seed Marie Bouzkova of the Czech Republic, who handled Italy’s Lucrezia Stefanini 6-2, 6-1.
Two more Round of 16 matches were scheduled for Thursday night. Top seed Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia will face Canadian Marina Stakusic, and No. 5 seed Magdalena Frech of Poland will take on American Ashlyn Krueger.
Jasmin Open Tunisia
Eva Lys of Germany toppled No. 1 seed Elise Mertens of Belgium 1-6, 6-2, 7-6 (4) in the Round of 16 in Monastir, Tunisia.
Lys ran out to a 4-0 lead in the first set before Mertens won the next four games. Mertens briefly led the set 6-5, but Lys forced a tiebreaker that wound up swinging back and forth until Lys won the final three points to cement the upset.
Mertens out-aced her opponent 7-0 but also committed seven double faults and won a mere third (13 of 39) of her second-serve points.
No. 7 seed Lucia Bronzetti of Italy beat Ann Li of the U.S. 6-4, 7-6 (3), while Croatian Antonia Ruzic eased past British foe Yuriko Miyazaki 6-3, 6-1. Also, Turkey’s Zeynep Sonmez saved 13 of 18 break points while posting a 6-4, 1-6, 6-3 victory over Belgian sixth seed Greet Minnen.
–Field Level Media
