Guadalajara, 15 September 2026: Stephens Back Where She Won It, and Bejlek Against the Biggest Serve in the Draw

The second round in Guadalajara has an odd, pleasing shape to it. Two players walk in fresh from byes, two walk in having already survived something awkward, and the best story of the lot belongs to a woman ranked outside the top 150 who once owned this tournament. Sloane Stephens is back on a court where she has a title and a 5-4 record, and she got there by grinding past a qualifier rather than by sweeping her aside.

Around that sit three matches that are all about style clashing with style: Cristina Bucsa's patience against Panna Udvardy's tired legs, Alycia Parks' first strike against Sara Bejlek's refusal to go away, and Diane Parry's slice against Peyton Stearns' heavy topspin. Here is the running order I care about:

19:00 — Bucsa — Udvardy
20:30 — Parks — Bejlek
23:00 — Parry — Stearns
00:30 — Stephens — Tjen

Times are UTC.

Cristina Bucsa — Panna Udvardy

This is a rematch of a Cincinnati first round from 13 August, and that one told you plenty: Bucsa won 6-2 1-6 7-5, which is to say she was the better player for two thirds of it and the calmer one at the end. Their only other meeting came on carpet in Obidos back in 2018, 6-0 6-3, which belongs to a different era of both careers. Bucsa leads 2-0 and has never lost a set to Udvardy on a surface that mattered, with the exception of that middle set in Ohio.

Bucsa's opener here was a lesson in restraint. Against Bianca Andreescu she refused to trade haymakers, held her length, and won 6-4 6-3 by making a gifted opponent hit from uncomfortable places. Her season on hard courts is nothing special on paper, a shade under fifty per cent, but the North American swing has revived her — a three-set survival against Himeno Sakatsume, then a defeat by Coco Gauff that never looked like surrender. "Ahora toca recuperarme y prepararme, mental y físicamente para la siguiente batalla," she said afterwards (Guadalajara Open), and she meant it: she was out there roughly ninety minutes.

Udvardy was out there far longer. She beat Lois Boisson 6-4 6-7(6) 6-2 after failing to close it in two, which was admirable, then went out and lost a doubles match on top of it. The worry is deeper than one long afternoon: her hard-court year reads 3-8, while clay still gives her 57 per cent, and this is a woman whose 14 career titles are almost entirely ITF-level work. Her ankle and body are reported sound; her legs, after nearly three hours, are another matter.

I expect Bucsa to make this a test of patience and win it. The rallies will be long and the Hungarian will have to hit one extra ball in almost every one of them, which is exactly the tax she cannot afford tonight. At 1.45 Bucsa is fair rather than generous, and the -3.5 games handicap feels like the honest read — though if Udvardy gets on the front foot early, the first set could still be a scrap.

Alycia Parks — Sara Bejlek

Bejlek is twenty, left-handed, ranked 28th, and spent the Cincinnati fortnight beating Ekaterina Alexandrova, Aryna Sabalenka 7-6(7) 6-4 and Madison Keys in three. That is not a hot streak, that is a statement. Her summary of how she does it is charmingly plain: "I just keep believing," she said in Ohio (WTA). The run stopped at the US Open, where Bucsa beat her 7-5 4-6 6-1 and was the steadier player in the decider.

She has also beaten Parks twice, both on hard: 7-6(9) 6-3 in Prague in July 2025, and 5-7 6-4 6-2 in Australian Open qualifying back in 2023. Neither was comfortable, and the tie-break in Prague tells you what this match is — Parks lands enough first strikes to take a set from anyone, then has to prove she can do it for ninety minutes. Her first round here was the familiar script: bright start against Varvara Lepchenko, a collapse in the middle, then a 7-5 rescue in the third after twice falling behind. A 12-14 year on hard courts is what happens when the peaks are that high and the troughs that deep.

Bejlek's counterweight is her lack of fuss: a low centre of gravity, quick feet, the left-handed angle, and the ability to change direction without telegraphing it. Her abdominal and back trouble from the first half of the year appears behind her. The one soft spot is the bye — she starts cold against a woman who has already measured the speed of the court and can play at an extreme tempo from the first game.

Bejlek at 1.288 is short but defensible, and I lean her way on sheer reliability. Still, this is the upset with the most logic behind it on the day: Guadalajara rewards the aggressive first ball, and if Parks resists the urge to finish every point immediately, she can flatten Bejlek's defensive structure. I'd expect a competitive match rather than a rout, so Parks at +4.5 games looks like the sturdier side of the handicap.

Diane Parry — Peyton Stearns

No previous meetings, and the bookmakers have taken a stance that amuses me: Stearns, ranked 55th, is the favourite over a top-30 player who just won Monterrey. There is reasoning behind it, and it mostly comes down to court time. Stearns has already adapted, beating Emiliana Arango 6-3 6-2 in a tidy hour and a bit, cleaner than most of her summer, where she kept starting well and losing clarity late — the 6-7(7) 6-1 5-7 against Clara Tauson being the painful example.

Parry, meanwhile, is having the best stretch of her adult career and has not hit a competitive ball since the US Open. Her run of results before the bye is genuinely good: Tauson beaten 6-3 7-5, Ann Li in a tight one, Elise Mertens 6-4 0-6 6-3, and the Monterrey title to finish it. "I came here with almost nothing," she said of that week (WTA) — which is a lovely line and no longer true. Two titles this season and 60 per cent on hard courts mean she now arrives as somebody expected to win, a heavier bag to carry than surprise.

The match hinges on geometry. Parry cuts the pace with that one-handed slice, changes height, and makes her opponent produce all the speed; Stearns wants the ball above shoulder level and the court opening up gradually under topspin. Neither has an injury to report, and Stearns is warm on this hard court: "Estoy súper emocionada de volver a Guadalajara," she said before the tournament (Guadalajara Open).

I genuinely don't know this one, and the near-even line agrees with me. If Parry gets time for the slice and the short angles, it goes her way in straight sets; if Stearns pins her deep, the American takes over. Either scenario suggests a long, contested match rather than a short one, so I'd expect the 21.5 total to be cleared and the one-game handicap to be decided by a single break.

Sloane Stephens — Janice Tjen

This is the story of the day, and it has two edges. Stephens, at 33, is rebuilding a career that a stress fracture in her right foot nearly took away — she turned down surgery and chose the long rehabilitation, and her whole last season on hard courts reads 0-6. "It's been a bumpy comeback. It's been an eventful comeback," she said at the US Open (US Open), and bumpy is the right word for a year that has produced a 6-4 6-1 dismissal of Clara Tauson and a 6-4 2-6 2-6 loss to Mananchaya Sawangkaew in roughly the same breath.

Her 6-4 7-6(5) win over Carole Monnet was the adult kind: she controlled the first set, lost the thread in the second, and instead of forcing, restored her depth and waited for her opponent's emotional wave to break. It was also her first main-draw win in Guadalajara after two failed visits, on a court where she has a title. The crowd does not treat her as an ordinary wild card, and that matters more at half past midnight than it sounds.

Tjen is the harder read. Her 2025 on hard courts was absurd — 72 wins against 15 losses, built mostly at ITF level — and this season on the same surface is a level, ordinary 12-14, including two beatings from Mirra Andreeva. She came through Darja Vidmanova 7-6(6) 6-2, tight for a set, then noticeably freer once she started varying height and spin and stepping inside the baseline. "I grew up on hard court… very, very excited to be finally back," she said of the surface (WTA), and she has the extra day of rest that Stephens does not.

I give Tjen the small edge at 1.603: fresher, more consistent right now, and her slice-and-drop-shot variety drags Stephens out of the position she likes behind the baseline. But the American's route back is obvious — turn it into a series of long, uncomfortable rallies and test whether Tjen, who has a habit of complicating won matches, starts second-guessing herself. I'd lean towards three sets and over 21.5 games, with Stephens at +2.5 the safer way to hold the underdog.

A former champion, a left-hander in a hurry, and one line that doesn't add up

The questions I'll be following are simple enough. Can Stephens make a young, quick opponent lose patience on a court that remembers her? Does Bejlek's Cincinnati confidence survive an opponent who can end points before they begin? And is the market right that Stearns' court time in Guadalajara outweighs Parry's Monterrey trophy — that is the one I'd most like to see settled.

Bucsa against Udvardy looks like the most predictable match on the schedule and may still be the most instructive, because fatigue rarely announces itself until the third long rally of a set. As for the actual numbers on each of these, the AI cappers handle that on the individual match pages, where they get far more specific than I do.