67 Facts About Maria Sakkari

1.

Maria Sakkari was a semifinalist at the 2017 Wuhan Open, where she defeated Caroline Wozniacki en route, her first top-10 win.

2.

In 2020, Maria Sakkari reached the fourth round at both the Australian Open and US Open.

3.

Maria Sakkari is known for her aggressive, all-court style of play, centered around her strong serve and powerful groundstrokes.

4.

Maria Sakkari served the sixth most aces of any WTA player in 2020, with 144 aces served in 31 matches.

5.

Maria Sakkari has two siblings: brother Yannis and sister Amanda.

6.

Maria Sakkari's grandfather Dimitris Kanellopoulos was a professional tennis player.

7.

Maria Sakkari was introduced to tennis by her parents at age 6 and moved to Barcelona at age 18 in order to train.

8.

Maria Sakkari has said that her favorite surfaces are hard and clay and that her favorite shot is the serve.

9.

Maria Sakkari is dating Konstantinos Mitsotakis, the son of prime minister of Greece Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

10.

Maria Sakkari started the 2016 season with no-passing qualification at Brisbane International and Hobart International.

11.

Maria 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.

12.

Maria Sakkari started the clay-court season at Charleston Open, where she got to the second round, where she lost to Jelena Ostapenko.

13.

Grass-court season went better for Maria 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.

14.

Maria Sakkari reached her first WTA Tour semifinal at the Wuhan Open by beating Caroline Wozniacki, Elena Vesnina and Alize Cornet, but then missed her chance to reach her first WTA final, losing to Caroline Garcia.

15.

Maria Sakkari started 2018 season with four first-round losses, against Danka Kovinic in the Shenzhen, Katerina Siniakova at the Australian Open, Julia Gorges in the St Petersburg, and Sorana Cirstea in the Doha.

16.

At Indian Wells, Maria Sakkari managed to beat Donna Vekic, 16th seed Ashleigh Barty and 17th seed CoCo Vandeweghe, respectively.

17.

Maria Sakkari lost in the fourth round to the eventual champion, Naomi Osaka.

18.

Maria Sakkari started her clay-court season by reaching her first semifinal in 2018 in where she beat Cagla Buyukakcay, Aleksandra Krunic and Arantxa Rus, respectively, before losing to Polona Hercog.

19.

Maria Sakkari then lost in the first round of the Madrid Open to Kiki Bertens.

20.

Maria Sakkari lost in the third round to Angelique Kerber.

21.

Maria Sakkari was defeated by Julia Gorges at the Birmingham Classic, Svetlana Kuznetsova at the Eastbourne International, and by Sofia Kenin at Wimbledon.

22.

The US hardcourt series started well for Maria Sakkari, reaching her first WTA final at the San Jose Classic, where she beat Christina McHale, Timea Babos, third seed Venus Williams, and Danielle Collins before she lost to Mihaela Buzarnescu in the final.

23.

At the Korea Open, Maria Sakkari made another WTA semifinal, defeating Anna Karolina Schmiedlova, Margarita Gasparyan and Irina-Camelia Begu, respectively, in first three rounds, before she was defeated by Kiki Bertens in the semifinal.

24.

At both the Wuhan Open and China Open, Maria Sakkari failed in the first rounds, losing to Wang Qiang and Donna Vekic, respectively.

25.

Maria Sakkari finished the year inside the top 50, reaching No 41.

26.

Maria Sakkari started year with a first-round loss at Hobart, where she was defeated by Magda Linette.

27.

Maria Sakkari reached the third round at the Australian Open, defeating Jelena Ostapenko and Astra Sharma, before she was eliminated by Ashleigh Barty.

28.

At next three tournaments, Maria Sakkari was eliminated in the first rounds: at St Petersburg by Julia Gorges, at the Mexican Open by Monica Puig, and at Indian Wells by Christina McHale.

29.

Maria Sakkari played at Kremlin Cup, where in first round, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova beat her in three sets.

30.

Maria Sakkari was successful at the first Grand Slam tournament of year, the Australian Open, where she reached her first Grand Slam round of 16.

31.

Maria Sakkari played at the St Petersburg Trophy, where she reached her new Premier semifinal.

32.

Maria Sakkari won against Vitalia Diatchenko and Alize Cornet in first two-rounds, and then in the quarterfinal, she made her new top-10 win, defeating No 5 Belinda Bencic, before new rising star, Elena Rybakina, stopped her from reaching the final.

33.

Maria Sakkari defeated Stefanie Vogele, Bernarda Pera and Amanda Anisimova, before Serena Williams stopped her from reaching her first Grand Slam quarterfinal.

34.

At the French Open, as the No 20 seed, Maria Sakkari reached her second third round; against qualifier Martina Trevisan, she had match points but missed the chance to reach the round of 16.

35.

Maria Sakkari started off the season strongly making the quarterfinals of Abu Dhabi without dropping a set with wins over Anastasia Potapova, Coco Gauff and Garbine Muguruza.

36.

Maria Sakkari then came from a set down to upset top seed Sofia Kenin before losing to eventual champion Aryna Sabalenka in straight sets.

37.

Maria Sakkari then backed this up with a semifinal appearance at the Grampians Trophy before losing to Anett Kontaveit in a three set thriller.

38.

Maria Sakkari rebounded with a quarterfinal appearance in Doha losing to eventual champion Muguruza, in straight sets.

39.

Maria Sakkari crashed out of the Dubai Championships to eventual finalist Barbora Krejcikova in the first round.

40.

Maria Sakkari beat her opening opponents Arantxa Rus and Ludmilla Samsonova in the second and third rounds, respectively, for the loss of six games combined.

41.

Maria Sakkari then saved six match points in a three-set thriller against surging American Jessica Pegula to reach her third WTA 1000 quarterfinal.

42.

Maria Sakkari caused one of the upsets of the tournament in defeating the second seed in straight sets.

43.

Maria Sakkari then faced Bianca Andreescu for a place in the final but was herself defeated in a third set tiebreaker.

44.

Maria Sakkari made her first ever Grand Slam semifinal at the French Open after beating Katarina Zavatska, Jasmine Paolini, Elise Mertens, Sofia Kenin, and defending champion Iga Swiatek, ending the 11-match, 22-set Roland Garros winning streak of the 2020 champion.

45.

Maria Sakkari became the first woman from Greece to reach a Grand Slam singles quarterfinal and later semifinal.

46.

In September 2021, Maria Sakkari beat No 4 seed Karolina Pliskova to earn a place in only the second Grand Slam semifinal of her career at the US Open to play qualifier from Great Britain Emma Raducanu.

47.

Maria Sakkari became the first Greek woman to reach the semifinals of the US Open.

48.

Maria Sakkari reached the semifinals defeating Aryna Sabalenka in three sets.

49.

Maria Sakkari reached the fourth round at the Australian Open, where she lost to Jessica Pegula.

50.

Maria Sakkari entered the St Petersburg Ladies' Trophy as the top seed.

51.

Maria Sakkari defeated Anastasia Potapova, Ekaterina Alexandrova and Elise Mertens to reach the semifinals.

52.

Maria Sakkari entered the Indian Wells Open as the 6th seed.

53.

Maria Sakkari defeated Katerina Siniakova, Petra Kvitova, qualifier Daria Saville and Elena Rybakina to reached her first Indian Wells semifinals.

54.

Maria Sakkari became the first Greek female player who reached the top 5.

55.

In Miami, Maria Sakkari lost early in the second round against Brazilian Beatriz Haddad Maia in three sets.

56.

At the French Open, Maria Sakkari lost in the second round to Karolina Muchova in straight sets.

57.

At the Cincinnati Masters, Maria Sakkari lost in the second round to Caroline Garcia in a tough three set match lasting more than 2 hours.

58.

Maria Sakkari reached her sixth WTA career final at the 2022 Emilia-Romagna Open where she was defeated by Mayar Sherif, in straight sets.

59.

Maria Sakkari made it to the finals of the Guadalajara Open Akron defeating Marta Kostyuk, Danielle Collins, Veronika Kudermetova and Marie Bouzkova in route.

60.

Maria Sakkari quickly got revenge for her loss in Guadalajara final by edging out a straight-sets win over Pegula in the opening match of the WTA Finals.

61.

Maria Sakkari started the year with games at the 2023 United Cup where she and the Greece team reached the semifinal, where they were eliminated by the Italian team.

62.

In Linz, Maria Sakkari made semifinals as top seed by beating Nuria Parrizas Diaz, Varvara Gracheva and Donna Vekic.

63.

Maria Sakkari continues her 2023 season in Doha, Qatar at the 2023 Qatar Total Open where she is the fifth seed.

64.

Maria Sakkari defeated the promising young Chinese player Zheng Qinwen in the first round and Ekaterina Alexandrova in the second round to reached the quarterfinals.

65.

Maria Sakkari defeated World No 5 and third seed Caroline Garcia in the quarterfinals in a gruelling battle.

66.

Maria Sakkari lost to second seed Jessica Pegula in the semifinals.

67.

Maria Sakkari is the first ambassador of the charity association DESMOS, which since 2012 supports vulnerable social groups, through many actions and programs, which are shared in collaboration with more than 800 organizations.