World number nine tennis player Maria Sakkari has ended her four-year wait for her second WTA title.
World number nine tennis player Maria Sakkari has ended her four-year wait for her second WTA title. The Greek defeated unseeded US player Caroline Dolehide in the final of the $2,788,468 tournament in Guadalajara, Mexico. Sakkari had lost all her previous six finals.
“We heard so many bad things – that I’m never going to win a title, that I’m a top-five player and I’ve only won one title, that was very hard for me to overcome,” the 28-year-old said, thanking her coach, with whom she has worked since 2018: “I’m so happy I made it here this week.”
Sakkari, still eliminated in the first round at the US Open, played a very strong tournament in Mexico. She became the first player to reach the final of a WTA 1000 tournament this year without dropping a set. In the final against the world number 11 Dolehide, Sakkari kept her clean slate, and in the new WTA ranking on Monday she will be ranked sixth.