By Field Level Media
Sep 19 (Field Level Media) - Iva Jovic earned her lone career WTA Tour title last year at the Guadalajara Open. She is one win away from making it two straight at the same event.
The 18-year-old Los Angeles native, seeded second, rolled to a 6-4, 6-1 victory over sixth-seeded Cristina Bucsa of Spain in the semifinals on Friday in Mexico.
Bucsa had plenty of opportunities in the match, but Jovic saved 11 of the 12 break points she faced. Jovic converted half of her eight break chances.
Standing in the way of Jovic successfully defending her crown will be Peyton Stearns, who is pursuing her third career tournament victory. The 24-year-old Cincinnati native downed eighth-seeded Liudmila Samsonova of Russia 7-6 (7), 6-2 in the other semifinal.
Stearns needed six set points to close the first set -- two with Samsonova serving at 5-6 and four more in the tiebreaker. In the second set, Stearns got an early break for a 2-1 edge and then pulled away.
Stearns' tournament wins occurred at Rabat, Morocco, in May 2024 and at Austin, Texas, in February 2026.
SP Open
Mary Stoiana, a 23-year-old Texas A&M product, saw her best WTA Tour event come to an end when she lost 6-4, 6-2 to second-seeded Paula Badosa of Spain in a quarterfinal match at Sao Paulo.
Badosa won 78% of her first-serve points while Stoiana managed just a 36% success rate on her first-serve points. The next opponent for Badosa will be Argentina's Nadia Podoroska, who edged the Netherlands' Suzan Lamens 7-6 (5), 3-6, 6-3.
In the other semifinal, fourth-seeded Anna Blinkova of France will oppose seventh-seeded Kaitlin Quevedo of Spain. Quevedo eliminated Serbia's Teodora Kostovic 6-3, 6-4, and Blinkova knocked off eighth-seeded Alina Charaeva of Armenia 6-4, 7-5.
(--Field Level Media)
