Osorio advances in Guadalajara; Gadecki makes first WTA semifinal

Camila Osorio of Colombia booked a spot in the Guadalajara Open AKRON semifinals with a 7-6(6), 6-2 victory over Kamilla Rakhimova at the WTA 500 tournament on Friday.

Guadalajara: Scores | Order of Play | Draws

With the win, World No.80 Osorio becomes the first Colombian to reach the semifinals of a WTA 500 event. She is just two victories away from her second title of the season; in April, she won her second Bogota title on home soil.

On Friday, Osorio needed to hold off surging Rakhimova in the opening set. Osorio staved off one set point at 6-5 in the tiebreak before clinching the set in 62 grueling minutes.

Osorio had an easier time in the second set, ending Rakhimova’s hot run in this Mexican metropolis. Rakhimova won the title at the WTA 125 event in Guadalajara last week and was on a seven-match winning streak.

Former Top 35 player Osorio has survived to the semis after nearly being eliminated on Wednesday. The Colombian No.1 was down 5-0 in the third set of her second-round match against No.7 seed Veronika Kudermetova, but she won seven straight games to prevail.

Gadecki awaits: In the semifinals, Osorio will have her first meeting with qualifier Olivia Gadecki. Australian 22-year-old Gadecki continued her breakthrough week at tour level with a 6-2, 3-6, 6-1 quarterfinal victory over former Top 20 player Martina Trevisan of Italy.

World No.152 Gadecki was contesting her first career WTA quarterfinal on Friday, having stunned World No.11 Danielle Collins on Wednesday for her second career Top 20 win.

Now, the Aussie has moved into her first career WTA semifinal with the 1-hour and 48-minute win over Trevisan. In the third set of Friday’s clash, Gadecki won 83 percent of her first-serve points and converted four of six break points.

Garcia to face Frech in semis: Meanwhile, No.4 seed Caroline Garcia of France moved into the Guadalajara Open AKRON semifinals for the second straight year, although she did not have to play a point on Friday.

Garcia advanced via walkover when No.6 seed Marie Bouzkova of the Czech Republic withdrew from their scheduled quarterfinal match.

Garcia will face No.5 seed Magdalena Frech of Poland in the semifinals. Frech ended the run of Canadian teenager Marina Stakusic, notching a 6-4, 6-3 win in the Guadalajara night match on Friday.

Highlights: Frech def. Stakusic

Stakusic saved four match points in her upset of top seed Jelena Ostapenko on Thursday, and she provided a moment of déjà vu on Friday. Trailing 6-4, 5-2, the teen erased four match points in that game and held for 5-3 in the second set.

Stakusic then grabbed a break point in the next game, nearly putting the second set back on serve. However, Frech saved that break point with an ace, and the Pole eventually converted her fifth match point when Stakusic fired a service return into the net.

Frech, currently one spot below her career-high ranking of No.42, is into her first hard-court semifinal. She just recently reached her first hard-court quarterfinal, also in Mexico, at Monterrey last month. Frech also made her first WTA final this summer, on the clay of Prague.