Maria Sakkari
Maria Sakkari is a Greek professional tennis player. She has been ranked as high as world No. 3 by the WTA, which she first achieved on 21 March 2022, making her the highest-ranked Greek women's tennis player. Her career-best doubles ranking is world No. 169, achieved on 9 September 2019.
Sakkari has won two singles titles on the WTA Tour, including a WTA 1000 title at the 2023 Guadalajara Open. She is known for her aggressive, all-court style of play, centered around her strong serve and powerful groundstrokes. She served the sixth most aces of any WTA Tour player in 2020, with 144 aces served in 31 matches.
Sakkari reached the semifinals at the 2017 Wuhan Open, where she defeated Caroline Wozniacki for her first top-10 win. In 2019, she reached another Premier 5 semifinal at the Italian Open where she defeated, among other players, Petra Kvitová. In 2020, Sakkari reached the fourth round at both the Australian and US Opens. In 2021, she reached the semifinals at the French and US Opens, making her the first Greek woman to reach a major semifinal.
She was named the Greek Female Athlete of the Year for the years 2020 and 2021.
Early and personal life
Maria Sakkari was born on 25 July 1995 to mother Angelikí Kanellopoúlou, a former top-50 tennis player, and father Konstantinos Sakkaris, in Athens. She has two siblings: brother Yannis and sister Amanda. Her grandfather Dimitris Kanellopoulos was also a professional tennis player. She was introduced to tennis by her parents at age 6 and moved to Barcelona at age 18 in order to train. She has said that her favorite surfaces are hard and clay and that her favorite shot is the serve. Growing up, her favourite players were Serena Williams, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. Sakkari currently resides in Monte Carlo. She is engaged to Konstantinos Mitsotakis, the son of the prime minister of Greece Kyriakos Mitsotakis.Sakkari appears in the Netflix tennis docuseries Break Point.
Professional
2015–16: WTA Tour & major debuts, top 100
Her first two attempts to debut on the WTA Tour were unsuccessful. At the Rio Open, she lost in the first round of qualifying to María Irigoyen, and later lost in the final stage of qualifying at Bucharest Open to Daria Kasatkina. However, on her third attempt, she not only made her debut on WTA Tour, but it was at a major, as she qualified for the US Open. In the qualifying, she beat Anastasija Sevastova, An-Sophie Mestach and Petra Martić, but then lost in the first round of the main draw to Wang Qiang. After the US Open, Sakkari entered the top 200 for the first time, reaching a ranking of 185. By the end of the year, she only played on the ITF Circuit and on the WTA Challenger Tour, where she reached semifinals at the Carlsbad Classic. Sakkari ended the year ranked 188.Sakkari started the 2016 season with no-passing qualification at Brisbane International and Hobart International. At the Australian Open, she first qualified, and then, in the first round of main draw, achieved a win against Wang Yafan. That win was her first at the WTA Tour, as well as her first Grand Slam match win. In the second round, she lost to Carla Suárez Navarro. At the Mexican Open in Acapulco, she was eliminated in the first round by Johanna Larsson. At the Indian Wells Open, she attempted to qualify for her first Premier Mandatory/Premier 5 tournament in the main draw, but failed in the first round of qualification. In Miami, she succeeded to qualify, but lost in the first round of the main draw to Irina-Camelia Begu.
Her second win on the WTA Tour was at the Istanbul Cup, where she defeated top seed Anna Karolína Schmiedlová. After beating Hsieh Su-wei in the second round, she reached her first WTA Tour quarterfinal, where she lost to Danka Kovinić. In Madrid, she failed to reach the main draw, losing to Patricia Maria Țig in the final stage of qualifying. Competing the qualifying at the 2016 French Open, she missed the chance to play in the main draw, losing her first match to Grace Min.
Sakkari got through qualifying for Wimbledon and won her first match at that tournament, defeating Zheng Saisai, but then lost in the second round to five-time former Wimbledon champion, Venus Williams. After this result, on July 11, 2016, she reached 97 in the rankings.
In Cincinnati, she lost in the qualifying to Zheng. At the US Open, she only reached the first round, where Duan Yingying defeated her, but it was her first Grand-Slam appearance in the main draw without need to play in qualifying. At the China Open, she lost in the final stage of qualifying to Wang Yafan.
2017: First Premier 5 semifinal and top 10 win, top 50 debut
In 2017, she reached the third round of a Grand Slam tournament for the first time at the Australian Open, where she lost in the third round to Mirjana Lučić-Baroni. In both Indian Wells and Miami, she failed in qualifying. She started the clay-court season at Charleston Open, where she got to the second round, where she lost to Jeļena Ostapenko. In Madrid and Rome, Sakkari lost in the qualifying. At the French Open, she debuted in the main draw, where she lost in the first round to Carla Suárez Navarro.Grass-court season went better for Sakkari, reaching the quarterfinals at Nottingham Open and her first third round at Wimbledon, where Johanna Konta stopped her from going into round of 16.
At the US Open, she reached the same stage as she did at the Australian Open and Wimbledon, making the third round for the third time. In the first two rounds, she defeated Kiki Bertens and Arina Rodionova, but was eliminated by Venus Williams in the third round. She reached her first WTA Tour semifinal at the Wuhan Open by beating Caroline Wozniacki, Elena Vesnina and Alizé Cornet, but then missed her chance to reach her first WTA final, losing to Caroline Garcia. This success propelled her into the top 50 of the WTA rankings, reaching No. 50, on 2 October 2017. Her last tournament of the season was the Tianjin Open, where Christina McHale eliminated her in the second round.
2018: First WTA Tour final and top 30 debut
Sakkari started 2018 season with four first-round losses, against Danka Kovinić in the Shenzhen Open, Kateřina Siniaková at the Australian Open, Julia Görges in the St. Petersburg, and Sorana Cîrstea in the Doha. In Dubai, she reached the final stage of qualification, but did not make it to the main draw, losing to Samantha Stosur. In Acapulco, she recorded her first win of the 2018 season, defeating Lara Arruabarrena in the first round, but lost against Stefanie Vögele in the second.At Indian Wells, Sakkari managed to beat Donna Vekić, 16th seed Ashleigh Barty and 17th seed CoCo Vandeweghe, respectively. She lost in the fourth round to the eventual champion, Naomi Osaka. At the Miami Open, she defeated Aleksandra Krunić and 28th seed Anett Kontaveit, and reached the third round where she lost to Monica Puig.
Sakkari started her clay-court season by reaching her first semifinal in 2018 in where she beat Çağla Büyükakçay, Aleksandra Krunić and Arantxa Rus, respectively, before losing to Polona Hercog. She then lost in the first round of the Madrid Open to Kiki Bertens. Her next tournament was the Italian Open, where she avenged her Madrid exit by beating Bertens in the first round, and then had her second win against a top-ten player by beating Karolína Plíšková. She lost in the third round to Angelique Kerber. At the French Open, she reached the third round, after defeating Mandy Minella and Carla Suárez Navarro and then she completed third rounds at all Grand Slam tournaments. In the third round, she lost to 14th seed Daria Kasatkina.
Sakkari lost all of her matches of the grass-court season. She was defeated by Julia Görges at the Birmingham Classic, Svetlana Kuznetsova at the Eastbourne International, and by Sofia Kenin at Wimbledon.
The U.S. hardcourt series started well for Sakkari, reaching her first Tour final at the San Jose Classic, where she beat Christina McHale, Tímea Babos, third seed Venus Williams, and Danielle Collins before she lost to Mihaela Buzărnescu in the final. On 6 August, she reached a new career-high ranking of No. 31. After that result, she was not successful in the rest of the US Series, reaching only first rounds at the Rogers Cup and Connecticut Open where she lost to Daria Kasatkina and Zarina Diyas, respectively, as well as only second rounds at the Cincinnati Open and US Open. At Cincinnati, she beat Naomi Osaka in the first round and avenged her loss in Indian Wells earlier that year. However, in the second round, Anett Kontaveit knocked her out of the tournament. When the US Open started, she debuted in the top 30. At the US Open, she was seeded for the first time at any Grand Slam championship, and she had to play against two Americans in the first two rounds, winning against Asia Muhammad, but then lost to Sofia Kenin.
At the Korea Open, Sakkari made another WTA semifinal, defeating Anna Karolína Schmiedlová, Margarita Gasparyan and Irina-Camelia Begu, respectively, in first three rounds, before she was defeated by Kiki Bertens in the semifinal. At both the Wuhan Open and China Open, Sakkari failed in the first rounds, losing to Wang Qiang and Donna Vekić, respectively. In her last two tournaments in 2018, Tianjin Open and Luxembourg Open, Sakkari failed in the first round. She finished the year inside the top 50, reaching No. 41.
2019: Maiden career title, Rome semifinalist, five top 10 wins
Sakkari started year with a first-round loss at Hobart, where she was defeated by Magda Linette. Sakkari reached the third round at the Australian Open, defeating Jeļena Ostapenko and Astra Sharma, before she was eliminated by Ashleigh Barty. At next three tournaments, Sakkari was eliminated in the first rounds: at St. Petersburg by Julia Görges, at the Mexican Open by Monica Puig, and at Indian Wells by Christina McHale. At the Miami Open, she defeated Olga Danilović in the first round, but lost to No. 3, Petra Kvitová, in the second.As it regards the clay-court season, she started playing at Charleston Open, where she defeated Conny Perrin, Andrea Petkovic and second seed Kiki Bertens, respectively. Then she reached quarterfinal where she was defeated by fifth seed Caroline Wozniacki. At İstanbul Cup, she failed in first round from Veronika Kudermetova. The Morocco Open was special for Sakkari, because until 23 September 2023 when she won the Guadalajara title, it had been her only tournament where she had succeeded to win a title. On her road to the final, she defeated Olga Danilović, Isabella Shinikova, Elise Mertens, Alison Van Uytvanck, and then, in the final, she defeated Johanna Konta. After winning the title, she climbed from 51 to place 39 in the WTA rankings. While in Madrid she did not have much success, reaching only first round, in Rome she firstly passed qualification and then she reached her second career-Premier-5 semifinal, but there lost to the eventual champion Karolína Plíšková. At the French Open, she was seeded for the first time there at No. 29, and she reached second round, winning against Anna Tatishvili in first round, but lost in second round to Kateřina Siniaková.
On grass court, first she got to the quarterfinal of the Nottingham Open where she lost to Jennifer Brady. Then at the Birmingham Classic, she was eliminated in the first round by Naomi Osaka. In Eastbourne, she beat Jessica Pegula, but Johanna Konta stopped her from going further than round one. At Wimbledon, she reached her second third round there, beating Bernarda Pera and Marie Bouzková, but then lost to Elina Svitolina in the third round.
In San Jose, she played her second semifinal there, winning against top-seeded Elina Svitolina in the quarterfinal, but this time she did not make it to the final, losing in her semifinal match to Zheng Saisai. At Rogers Cup, she lost to Alison Riske in the first round. In Cincinnati, she reached a new Premier-5 quarterfinal, before she lost to world No. 1, Ashleigh Barty, in three sets. At the US Open, she lost in third round, again to Barty.
Back in Europe, she only played one tournament. She played at Kremlin Cup, where in first round, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova beat her in three sets. For the first time in Sakkari's career, she qualified for some year-end championships. At WTA Elite Trophy, she lost both matches in her group, to Elise Mertens and Aryna Sabalenka.