Guadalajara Open 2026 winners and final scores
Iva Jovic won the 2026 Guadalajara Open singles title, defeating Peyton Stearns 6-4, 6-2 in the WTA 500 final. It was a repeat Guadalajara championship for Jovic and her second career WTA singles title. In doubles, Cristina Bucsa and Nicole Melichar-Martinez beat Momoko Kobori and Peangtarn Plipuech 6-2, 5-7, [10-5]. These are the completed 2026 outcomes, confirmed by the WTA's final report and year-specific event records, rather than the 2025 results that still appear under the older Akron sponsor name.
| 2026 title | Winner | Runner-up | Final score |
|---|---|---|---|
| Women's singles | Iva Jovic | Peyton Stearns | 6-4, 6-2 |
| Women's doubles | Cristina Bucsa / Nicole Melichar-Martinez | Momoko Kobori / Peangtarn Plipuech | 6-2, 5-7, [10-5] |
The tournament's WTA page gives 13–19 September 2026 as its event dates in Zapopan, Mexico. The WTA singles final report was published on 20 September, after the Saturday-night local final. That publication date can appear in a search snippet, so use the event schedule and match record when identifying the local match day. The final score itself is unambiguous on the official Jovic–Stearns result.
Iva Jovic beats Peyton Stearns in singles
Jovic was the No. 2 seed and won the final in one hour and 26 minutes. The WTA account says she went through the week without losing a set. Stearns reached the final as a fellow American, giving the title match an all-American pairing. The match record shows a finished two-set result; it is not a postponed match or a projected bracket line. Jovic's 2025 Guadalajara title makes the 2026 win a successful defense, but each edition's opponent and score should be kept separate.
A 6-4, 6-2 score can look one-sided in isolation. The first set was tight through eight games, with no break point for either player until Jovic broke for 5-4. That detail comes from the WTA report and helps explain why the first set lasted 46 minutes. Stearns was the singles runner-up, and the prize table later in this article reflects a runner-up finish. It should not be confused with the doubles result, where a deciding match tiebreak was played.
Cristina Bucsa and Nicole Melichar-Martinez win doubles
Bucsa and Melichar-Martinez won their final against Kobori and Plipuech in one hour and 32 minutes. After splitting the first two sets, the teams played a match tiebreak recorded as [10-5]. That bracketed score is the deciding tiebreak, not a third conventional set. The WTA report notes that Melichar-Martinez reached her 20th WTA doubles title and Bucsa her ninth. This was a doubles team championship; neither player's singles outcome should be inferred from it.
The doubles final took place earlier than the Jovic–Stearns singles final. Naming both champions answers a common “Guadalajara Open winners” search without collapsing two draws into one. For a match-by-match audit, open the WTA's 2026 draws and choose the singles or doubles portion deliberately. Both final scores are completed results, and both belong to the WTA 500 event whose 2026 sponsor title includes Santander.
How Jovic secured a second Guadalajara title
Jovic's title was built on four straight-set wins after a first-round bye. As the No. 2 seed in a 28-player singles draw, she entered in the second round, then beat Zeynep Sonmez, Magdalena Frech, Cristina Bucsa and Peyton Stearns. The WTA's completed 2026 draw confirms that path. She did not lose a set across those four matches, which is a stronger description of her week than simply saying she won a two-set final.
Her path through the 2026 singles draw
Jovic opened her main-draw play against Sonmez and won 7-6(5), 6-4. That was her closest set of the run, decided by a tiebreak. In the quarterfinal she beat No. 7 seed Frech 6-2, 6-1, then defeated No. 6 seed Bucsa 6-4, 6-1 in the semifinal. The WTA's semifinal report says Jovic never trailed Bucsa. Her final against Stearns ended 6-4, 6-2. The four scores show a steady run, with the challenge of a tiebreak early and dominant scorelines later.
Stearns earned the other final place through a different route. The WTA semifinal report says she recovered from a double-break deficit in the opening set against Liudmila Samsonova, winning 7-6(7), 6-2. Both Americans reached the final without dropping a set. That made their matchup more than a seeded favorite meeting an accidental finalist; Stearns had handled pressure against a seeded opponent and arrived with her own unbeaten-set record for the week.
The decisive moments in the final
The first eight games of the Jovic–Stearns final were all holds, with neither player generating a break point, according to the WTA final report. Jovic made the first break for 5-4 and then served out the first set in 46 minutes. The timing of that break mattered: it left Stearns no further service game in the set to repair the deficit. It was a close first set that turned late, not a start-to-finish break advantage.
Jovic carried that shift into the second set, breaking in the opening game and holding for 2-0. She broke again for 5-2 and completed the match on her third championship point with a backhand winner. The official match page records one hour and 26 minutes for the finished contest. A brief rain shower affected the ceremony after the match, the WTA reported, but it did not alter the completed final score. The resulting 6-4, 6-2 win fits the tournament's all-straight-sets pattern for Jovic.
What back-to-back means here
Jovic also won the Guadalajara WTA 500 in 2025, defeating Emiliana Arango 6-4, 6-1. In 2026 she returned and beat Stearns, becoming the first repeat singles champion in this event's short history. “Back-to-back” therefore refers to consecutive editions of this Guadalajara tournament, not consecutive weeks or victories against the same opponent. The 2025 win was her first career WTA title, earned at 17; the 2026 defense became her second. That historical link is useful, but the two finals have separate opponents, scores and sponsor titles.
The result also places Jovic's week in the WTA 500 category. A Guadalajara 125 event has existed in the same area under a separate tournament record, so a 125 result is not part of this four-match WTA 500 route. The next sections separate those event identities and explain the 500-level points and prize money actually attached to this championship.
Guadalajara Open 2026 prize money and ranking points
The 2026 Guadalajara Open singles champion is listed for $185,500 and 500 ranking points. Because Iva Jovic won the completed WTA 500 singles final, that is the champion's published result-based amount and point award. Runner-up Peyton Stearns is listed at $114,500 and 325 points. These values come from the WTA's 2026 Guadalajara breakdown and match the prize label on its completed draw. The event page's much larger $1,206,446 total commitment is a different tournament-wide figure.
Singles payouts by finishing round
The WTA 2026 Hard-Court Swing guide publishes the following USD singles prize amounts and ranking points. Read each row as the outcome for that finishing stage, not a sum of all earlier rounds. For example, the champion entry is $185,500 and 500 points; adding the first-round, second-round and quarterfinal rows on top would overstate her prize and points.
| Singles finish | Ranking points | Published USD prize |
|---|---|---|
| First round | 1 | $13,005 |
| Second round | 60 | $18,045 |
| Quarterfinal | 108 | $35,000 |
| Semifinal | 195 | $66,003 |
| Finalist | 325 | $114,500 |
| Champion | 500 | $185,500 |
The completed 2026 draw labels the singles final with the $185,500 champion prize. It also has a doubles draw with separate team amounts, so the singles table cannot be used to say what Bucsa and Melichar-Martinez received for their doubles title. The WTA event overview's $1,206,446 total commitment is not Jovic's personal payout, and it is not an admission-ticket price. Search pages that show only “Guadalajara prize money” can leave all three meanings unclear.
These numbers refer to the 2026 WTA 500 event whose final Jovic won. The earlier Guadalajara 125 event had a different level, draw, schedule and overall commitment, so a 125 prize chart cannot answer a 500 winner-pay question. The 2025 sponsor name also differs from the 2026 title. Checking the year and event tier beside a prize figure is just as important as checking the currency.
Dates, venue and WTA 500 level
The completed 2026 Guadalajara Open presented by Santander ran 13–19 September on outdoor hard courts at Centro Panamericano de Tenis in Zapopan, part of the Guadalajara metropolitan area in Mexico. The WTA lists it as a 500-level event with a 28-player singles draw and 16-team doubles draw. These details identify the competition behind Jovic's result and the $185,500 singles champion prize. They also separate it from similarly named events and older seasons.
The WTA's pre-event guide had put the singles final on Saturday 19 September no earlier than 5 p.m. local Central Standard Time, UTC−6, after a doubles final planned for 2:30 p.m. Both finals did take place on Saturday in Mexico. The final report's 20 September publication date reflects reporting after the local Saturday-night result. A reader comparing calendars across time zones should therefore use the event's 13–19 September range and the match's local context, rather than treating the next day's article timestamp as a second final day.
The tournament has changed level over its short history. The WTA 2026 overview says the main Guadalajara Open began as a WTA 1000 in 2022 and moved to WTA 500 in 2024. Jovic's 2025 and 2026 championships are both within its WTA 500 era. A search result that calls Guadalajara a 1000 may describe the earlier editions, not the completed 2026 event. The 2026 bracket's seeded first-round byes reflect its 28-player singles format; Jovic played four matches after her bye to win the title.
Venue details also help a fan interpret video and photo results. The WTA calls the facility Centro Panamericano de Tenis and locates the competition in Zapopan, while the tour event label says Guadalajara. Those descriptions refer to the same 2026 WTA 500 tournament. The city hosted the 2021 WTA Finals, and the later Guadalajara Open grew from that hosting success. None of that history changes the official 2026 match scores, but it explains why the metropolitan area's tennis venue features prominently in the event's identity.
Why Akron and Guadalajara 125 search results differ
Guadalajara search results can place three related labels beside one another: Guadalajara Open Akron, Guadalajara Open and Guadalajara 125 Open. The first two can refer to different naming years of the main tour event; the 125 is a distinct competition. Checking the year and level before reading a prize table or score prevents a plausible-looking but incorrect answer. For the completed 2026 main event, the WTA's official name is Guadalajara Open presentado por Santander, and its level is WTA 500.
Akron belongs to the previous sponsor title
The WTA's 2025 archive calls the main tournament Guadalajara Open Akron presented by Santander. It ran 8–14 September 2025 as a WTA 500 and listed total event commitment of $1,064,510. The 2026 archive for the same main event calls it Guadalajara Open presentado por Santander, with 13–19 September dates and $1,206,446 total commitment. Both pages use the main event's WTA tournament identifier, 2075. That continuity explains why a search for “Guadalajara Open Akron 2026 results” may lead to the correct event family, even though Akron is not part of the official 2026 title.
The naming distinction matters for facts as well as branding. Jovic won the main WTA 500 in both 2025 and 2026, but the opponents, scores, calendar dates and financial figures are edition-specific. The 2026 result here is Jovic over Peyton Stearns, 6-4, 6-2, on local 19 September. A page headed “Akron 2025” is useful for the earlier title defense context; it cannot independently establish that 2026 final score or the 2026 $185,500 singles winner payment. When searching, add the year and confirm that the page's date range matches the edition you mean.
Guadalajara 125 is a separate tournament
The WTA's 2025 Guadalajara 125 page has a different tournament identifier, 2098. It calls the competition Guadalajara 125 Open, also known as Abierto Zapopan, and places its 2025 edition on 1–6 September. The WTA records a 32-player singles field, an eight-team doubles field and $115,000 total commitment. Alexandra Eala is listed as its singles champion. None of those are the 2026 main WTA 500 winner, field or total commitment.
Both events use the Guadalajara/Zapopan location and outdoor hard courts, so geography alone cannot distinguish their records. Read the level, year and tournament identifier together: 2026 main Guadalajara is 500/2075, while the cited 2025 Guadalajara 125 is 125/2098. The $115,000 on that 125 page is its total event commitment, not Jovic's 2026 champion payout; the latter is $185,500 on the WTA's 2026 main-event prize schedule. This comparison is about the documented 2025 125 edition and does not assume whether another 125 edition appears in a later calendar.
Where to verify every 2026 result
For a single score, start with the WTA's 2026 singles final match record. It identifies the 500-level Guadalajara event, marks the match finished on local Saturday 19 September and shows Iva Jovic over Peyton Stearns 6-4, 6-2 in one hour and 26 minutes. The WTA final report supplies the doubles champions and their full three-part score. These direct records are preferable to a search snippet when a result or match status is in dispute.
To review how the singles title was won, open the official 2026 draw, keep the year set to 2026, and select Singles. It shows Jovic's first-round bye, then her wins over Sonmez, Frech, Bucsa and Stearns in bracket order. Change the same page to Doubles when tracing Bucsa and Melichar-Martinez's team title. A WTA scores page also exists for the tournament, but its match grid may load dynamically; the finished match page and draw provide more stable direct references for the completed final.
Our 2026 Guadalajara tournament page groups event details with site navigation. As checked on 27 September 2026, Asia/Shanghai time, its captured match statuses had not all caught up with the completed tournament, so use the WTA match record for a definitive final score. The WTA calendar helps place Guadalajara among other tour weeks, and the rankings page offers current ranking context. Neither should replace the year-specific Guadalajara draw when identifying a winner.
Before sharing a result, confirm four fields: 2026, WTA 500, Guadalajara main event and singles or doubles. That short check filters out a 2025 Akron archive, the separate Guadalajara 125 and scores from other disciplines. It also resolves the apparent date mismatch between the Saturday 19 September final in Mexico and a report published on 20 September. For the 2026 WTA 500, the verified answer remains Jovic in singles and Bucsa/Melichar-Martinez in doubles.