The race is on! WTA Finals hopefuls Garcia, Kasatkina, Sakkari move forward in Guadalajara

Fiesta, forever. Guadalajara is putting on quite the show thus far as contenders chase the five remaining spots in the Race to the WTA Finals.

Just before midnight struck, Caroline Garcia held off an inspired serving display from Rebecca Marino, 6-7 (2), 6-3, 7-6 (5), to join fellow Fort Worth hopefuls Daria Kasatkina and Maria Sakkari among Tuesday’s win column.

Marino struck 24 aces, and was two points away from securing her maiden Top 10 victory in the third set when Garcia served at 5-6, 0-30 following a medical timeout and later 4-5 in the decisive tiebreaker. But this year’s Cincinnati champion held her nerve to prevail in 2 hours and 24 minutes. Garcia now awaits the winner of Sloane Stephens and Belinda Bencic, who was ranked No. 12 in the race entering this event.

Earlier, Kasatkina cruised past Zhu Lin, 6-1, 6-2, to maintain her seventh-place position. The Russian was just 11 points behind Garcia in the race standings coming into this week. Kasatkina is aiming to reach the WTA’s season finale for the first time.

Meanwhile, Sakkari—a semifinalist last year when the WTA Finals were staged in Guadalajara—defeated Marta Kostyuk, 6-4, 6-4. With Simona Halep previously ending her season, Sakkari currently occupies the final qualifying berth, though the woman she overtook, Veronika Kudermetova, will reclaim the all-important No. 8 spot should she win her opener.

Kudermetova meets last weekend’s San Diego finalist Donna Vekic Wednesday. Coco Gauff and Aryna Sabalenka—each currently in line to punch singles tickets to Texas—also begin their campaigns

Petra Kvitova and Beatriz Haddad Maia saw their slim chances ended with their respective losses to Bianca Andreescu and Katerina Siniakova.