In a draw that featured five former Top 10 players among its Top 8 seeds, it will be qualifier Olivia Gadecki and No. 5 seed Magdalena Frech who will play for the WTA 500 Guadalajara Open Akron title on Sunday.
Sunday’s final is gauaranteed to crown a first-time WTA singles champion, as Gadecki had never reached even a quarterfinal before making her Mexican breakthrough while Frech lost her only previous championship appearance: on home soil in Poland earlier this year to her countrywoman, Magda Linette.
Gadecki, 22 and a mentee of former world No. 1 Ashleigh Barty, was the first to punch her ticket to the final with a 6-2, 6-3 win over Colombia’s Camila Osorio on Saturday, her sixth straight win for the week. After two wins in qualifying, Gadecki started her main-draw efforts by beating former US Open champion Sloane Stephens, then No. 2 seed Danielle Collins in the second round for her second career Top 20 win.
Gadecki, who entered the tournament ranked No. 152, hadn’t won a main-draw WTA match outside of Australia before coming to Guadalajara, but will also achieve a ranking milestone regardless of result: She’ll break the Top 100 for the first time on Monday regardless of the result.
“This week’s been a special one, and to be Top 100 is pretty amazing and something I’ve strived for for my whole career,” Gadecki said post-match.
“My game plan was really just to play how I’ve always played. I’m an aggressive player, and I know I do well when I back myself and just commit, and I really feel like I did that well today.”
