The Mérida Open tournament, organized by GS Sports Management and sanctioned by the Women’s Tennis Association under the WTA 500 label, has been operating irregularly for the past three years by using the competition’s name without the legal rights to do so and, despite this, commercially exploiting the brand.
Headed by Gustavo Santoscoy Arriaga, GS Sports Management bills itself as the number one sports event company in Latin America and is behind the Guadalajara Open WTA 500, considered the flagship event in its portfolio, which also includes the Riviera Maya Open golf tournament, as well as padel tournaments and surfing competitions.
In 2025, it also operated the Puerto Vallarta and Querétaro tournaments in the WTA 125 category, which no longer appear on the 2026 calendar.
For almost two years, Santoscoy Arriaga has been embroiled in a legal battle over its participation in the Mérida Open without the corresponding commercial rights to the name, a dispute that resulted in a ruling against it during the 2026 edition, held from February 23 to March 1 at the Yucatán Country Club.
In the middle of the tournament, this court ruling caused the official communication for the event to change from Mérida Open to Mérida WTA 500, even though both the official website and its social media accounts retained the domain with the arbitrarily appropriated name.
Given this situation, the tournament’s media team repeatedly requested that accredited media representatives use the term Mérida WTA 500 in their coverage.
Proceso conducted a search at the Mexican Institute of Industrial Property (IMPI), which shows Francisca Félix Reyes as the owner of the Mérida Open trademark, registered on October 31, 2022, and valid until December 17, 2035.
According to the registration, the trademark covers the organization of tennis tournaments, as well as entertainment or court rentals for this sport at sports facilities, in addition to contests, educational activities, online gaming services, and even ticket sales.
Francisca Félix Reyes is listed in the Public Registry of Commerce as the majority shareholder and administrator of Mexique Eventos SA de CV, a company with experience in organizing footraces in Mexico that ventured into tennis promotion with the first edition of the Mérida Open in 2023.
Thanks to his partnership with the global sports and entertainment agency Octagon, owner of the tournament franchise, Gustavo Santoscoy sought investors to bring the WTA 250 tournament to fruition in Mexico. He eventually found an alliance with Mexique Eventos, which, after evaluating various locations in the country, decided that the city of Mérida was the ideal venue for the tournament.
However, after the first edition, GS Sports Management unilaterally severed its ties with Mexique Eventos, despite signed contracts that bound the promoter to the tournament and the venue for at least five years.
In 2025, the Mérida Open was upgraded on the WTA calendar, moving from a 250 to a 500 event, the third most important level on the women’s professional tennis circuit, surpassed only by the four Grand Slams and the ten WTA 1000 tournaments. This upgrade translates into higher revenue for an organization operating illegally.
Proceso contacted Francisca Félix and Tonatiuh Bravo, former CEO of Mexique Eventos, who declined to comment on the ongoing legal situation. However, Proceso was able to confirm that there are at least two open lawsuits against GS Sports Management regarding its involvement in the Mérida Open.
The legal dispute over the naming rights adds to the controversy generated a few days ago when it was revealed that the tournament organizers had delayed payments to the players from a $1.2 million prize pool distributed among the participants. The doubles title was won by Spain’s Cristina Bucsa.
The controversy stems from a message sent by Nikki Rusch, WTA prize coordinator, to the participants. The sports daily AS Mexico obtained and published a copy of the message, in which she stated that the financial compensation had been “unexpectedly delayed,” apologizing on behalf of the Women’s Tennis Association for the situation.
Source: proceso
