Guadalajara (Mexico), September 13 (EFE).- Canadian tennis player Eugénie Bouchard and Australian Ajla Tomljanovic each received a wild card for the Guadalajara Open, the organizers of the Mexican tournament, WTA category, reported this Wednesday Masters 1,000.

The players will participate in a main draw led by Poland’s Iga Swiatek, world number two in tennis; the American Coco Gauff, three; the Kazakh Elena Rybakina (4), the defending champion, the American Jessica Pegual (5), and the Tunisian Ons Jabeur (7).

The initial wish of the organizers was to give a wild card to Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka so that she could begin her position as best in the WTA rankings in Guadalajara, which this year will claim its second edition as Masters 1,000.

“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,” Gustavo Santoscoy, tournament director, told EFE in an interview on September 10.

After Sabalenka’s refusal, the leaders chose Bouchard, Wimbledon finalist in 2014, and old acquaintance of the competition, who competed for the first time in 2021, when it was the 250 category, and in which she returned last year in Masters 1000. .

In 2022, Bouchard fell in the second round in Guadalajara.

Tomljanovic, 30, is seeking the first title of his career, after losing in the finals in Pattaya, Seoul, Rabat and Hua Hin. The one who was born in Croatia, but naturalized Australian, will make his debut at the tournament in Guadalajara.

The WTA Mexican Masters 1,000 will have a prize pool of $2,788,488, will have a main stadium with a capacity of 7,500 people and another with 2,500 seats available, in addition to three courts.

A few weeks after the Guadalajara tournament, Cancún will host the WTA final, which will bring together the eight best players in the world who will compete for a purse of nine million dollars.