Spartan Sakkari’s journey to the top 20 (Part 4 of 4)
AGONAsport’s Andrew Stamas looks at Greek tennis star Maria Sakkari’s gradual rise to the top 20, in the final part of a four-part series.
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View parts one, two, and three.
Following her run to the title in Morocco, Sakkari was keen to maintain her good form. Before she knew it, she made another deep run at a clay court tournament, this time at the 2019 Italian Open in Rome. The Greek had to play qualifying at the Premier 5 tournament in order to make it to the main draw. She dispatched former world number two Vera Zvonareva of Russia, as well as another former top 10 player in Germany’s Andrea Petkovic (winning both matches in straight sets), to qualify. She then won another two matches in straight sets to get to the third round, where she would face world number five Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic.
Sakkari won that match 7-5 5-7 4-0 ret., advancing to the quarterfinals. She then beat former top 10 player Kristina Mladenovic of France, reaching the semifinals of a tournament this big for the first time since Wuhan 2017. The Greek’s run ended in the semifinals at the hands of eventual champion Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic (world number seven), and her ranking jumped up to 29 in the world. It should be noted that Sakkari was ranked 51 just three weeks prior to that.
Sakkari’s next four tournament results included a tough second round loss at the French Open to the Czech Republic’s Katerina Siniakova, and a first round loss at the WTA Premier grass event in Birmingham to world number one Naomi Osaka of Japan in three sets. Osaka had actually lost to Siniakova in the third round of the French Open.
At Wimbledon, the Greek cruised through her first two matches to set up a third round encounter with world number eight Elina Svitolina of Ukraine. The Ukrainian won the match in three sets, and later made it all the way to the semifinals. A few weeks later, the two would face each other again, in the quarterfinals of the Premier event San Jose, California, where Sakkari was runner-up in 2018. This time, Sakkari won the match in three sets, coming back from 1-6 2-5 down and saving four match points against the world number seven. She then lost in the semifinals to eventual champion Saisai Zheng of China.
Two weeks later, Sakkari found herself in the quarterfinals of the Premier 5 tournament in Cincinnati. She won matches over the likes of world number six Kvitova and world number nine Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus to reach that stage. This was the first time in Sakkari’s career that she defeated two top 10 players in the same tournament. After that, she came up short against world number two Ashleigh Barty of Australia, falling in three sets.
The US Open was the Greek’s next tournament, where she reached the third round before losing once again to Barty. This marked the seventh time in Sakkari’s career that she reached the third round of a Grand Slam, but was now 0-7 in those third round matches. After the tournament, she moved up to 28 in the WTA rankings, getting to a new career-high for the first time in almost a year. The following week, she would improve this career-high ranking to 27 in the world. With few points to defend for the rest of the year, a strong finish to the season from Sakkari could have seen her skyrocket up the rankings.
Unfortunately for the Greek, she got injured and had to withdraw from several tournaments in September and October. She then struggled to regain form, and would finish the season having lost four consecutive matches. Nevertheless, Sakkari ended the year ranked 23 in the world as several players ranked ahead of her had dropped points. After having finished 2018 ranked 41, Sakkari nearly cut her ranking in half in 2019. Aside from winning her first WTA title, another significant takeaway from 2019 was that the Greek defeated a total of five opponents ranked in the top 10 throughout the year.
Sakkari’s losing streak would extend to five in January 2020, with the Greek falling in the first round of the Premier tournament in Brisbane to world number four Osaka. A win in Adelaide the next week finally ended Sakkari’s losing streak, and she then reached the third round of the Australian Open without dropping a set. After being 0-7 in Grand Slam third round matches, Sakkari finally reached the fourth round after defeating American Madison Keys (world number 11) in straight sets. This made her the first Greek woman to reach the round of 16 at a major since 2004. Sakkari’s run ended in her next match with a three-set loss to world number eight Kvitova.
Sakkari’s Melbourne performance propelled her WTA ranking to another new career-high, this time number 21 in the world. She then took part in the Premier event in St. Petersburg, reaching the semifinals with a 2-6 6-4 6-3 win over Swiss world number five Belinda Bencic. Also at that tournament, Sakkari saved a match point in her first round win over Russian qualifier Vitalia Diatchenko. Despite a semifinal loss to Kazakhstan’s Elena Rybakina, the Greek exceeded expectations in Russia, as she had previously never reached the semifinals of an indoor event on the WTA tour.
Sakkari played in the Middle East the following two weeks, first at the Premier event in Dubai and then at the Premier 5 in Doha. World number 13 Sabalenka got the better of Sakkari in both tournaments, beating the Greek in the first round of Dubai and in the third round (round of 16) in Doha. However, it must be said that Sakkari’s ranking went up to 20 just before the tournament in Doha began. Due to COVID-19, Sakkari’s tournaments for the next several months were all cancelled. This pandemic came at an inopportune time for the Greek, as she was continuing to improve and was setting herself up for more success, having just cracked the top 20. To put things into perspective, Sakkari improved her ranking from outside the top 500 to inside the top 20 within six years.
Eleni Daniilidou was the highest ranked Greek female tennis player of all-time, peaking at number 14 back in 2003. Sakkari could very possibly overtake Daniilidou when the tour resumes, which is something that may not have seemed possible earlier in her career. It remains uncertain when professional tennis will resume, but when it does, Greek tennis fans can only hope that Sakkari continues to rise. Whatever happens though, one thing is for sure — that Sakkari (and Tsitsipas) will leave a legacy behind for future Greek tennis players to follow, as the sport has now become massively popular in Greece thanks to the success of both of them. Together, they put Greek tennis on the map, and they will also vie for medals at next year’s Olympics in Tokyo (both individually in singles as well as together in mixed doubles).
Tennis is a sport where late bloomers are becoming more commonplace, and Sakkari is still just 24 and already ranked within the world’s top 20. There have been countless examples of players who reached the upper echelons of the game at the latter stages of their careers in recent years. For example, Italy’s Roberta Vinci reached the top 20 for the first time at age 28, and later cracked the top 10 in 2016 as a 33-year-old. Another Italian, Francesca Schiavone, first reached the top 10 at age 29 in 2010 and made the top five the following year. Czech Barbora Strycova reached her maiden Grand Slam semifinal at Wimbledon last year, aged 33. Given that Sakkari has shown constant improvement year after year, there is no reason why she can’t also achieve such feats down the road. The fact that Sakkari has a reputation for being a fighter who never gives up no matter what the score is (often turning matches around from losing positions), also bodes well for her. Lastly, Sakkari is constantly referred to as one of the fittest players on tour (special thanks must be given to Georgios Panagiotopoulos for being her fitness coach for over a decade). With the game becoming more and more physical as time passes, this can only work in her favor going forward.
