Canadian Eugenie Bouchard and Australian Ajla Tomljanovic have received invitations to the Guadalajara Open, the organizers of the Mexican tournament announced on Wednesday. The tournament is a WTA 1000 category event.
The players will join a main draw led by American Coco Gauff, Kazakh Elena Rybakina, defending champion American Jessica Pegula, and Tunisian Ons Jabeur.
The organizers' original plan was to give a wild card to Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka so that she could make her debut as the top-ranked player in the WTA rankings in Guadalajara, which will host its second edition as a Masters 1000 event this year. "We have a reserve wild card in case Sabalenka comes at the last minute; we spoke with her in New York, and we are waiting," said Gustavo Santoscoy, the tournament director, in an interview with EFE on September 10th.
After Sabalenka's refusal, the organizers chose Bouchard, a Wimbledon finalist in 2014, who previously participated in the tournament for the first time in 2021 when it was a 250 category event. She returned last year when it became a Masters 1000 event. In 2022, Bouchard was eliminated in the second round.
Tomljanovic, 30, is seeking her first career title after being a finalist in Pattaya, Seoul, Rabat, and Hua Hin. The Croatia-born, Australian naturalized player will make her debut in the Guadalajara tournament.
The Mexican WTA 1000 event will have a prize pool of $2,788,488 and will feature a main stadium with a capacity of 7,500 people, another stadium with 2,500 available seats, as well as three courts.
Weeks after the Guadalajara tournament, Cancun will host the WTA Finals, which will feature the top eight players in the world competing for a prize pool of nine million dollars.