I guess it’s a rookie mistake.” She concluded if she was in that position again then she would know what to do. “I got stressed, starting thinking that I’m a point away from being in the final. Shortly after the most crushing defeat of her life, she delivered one of the most memorable press conferences of the year: “I have to be deadly honest,” she said. It’s the best thing in that part of my career, it was my turning point and it definitely was one thing that I will never regret.”Īll of that mental work was particularly tested at the French Open when she reached her first slam semi-final and held match point before a heartbreaking loss to Barbora Krejcikova. It’s probably one of the best gifts I’ve ever given to myself because that improved me as a person and it improved me as a player as well. “Being deadly honest, I’m working with a specialist,” she says. Still, Sakkari says her mental transformation, and her management of the “negative thoughts”, has been her biggest change. Most notably, her serve has dramatically transformed from a decent but inconsistent delivery to her defining weapon. But now she uses her athleticism in order to play more attacking tennis. Sakkari has always been chiselled and strong, such a supreme athlete that during lockdown she considered competing in the Greek national athletics championships with her 100m personal best of 12.7 (without spikes) just to amuse herself, and she plays an extremely physical style. Sakkari and Hill are the same age and they have grown and improved together, with both determined to test each other’s limits on the court and then enjoy themselves away from it: “It’s nice to have someone your age who really understands you and really supports your decisions,” she says.Īlthough her improvements have been constant, this year has been her true breakthrough. Tennis players often dip into the same pool of inexperienced coaches who move from one camp to the next, but her unusual choice has turned out to be an inspired one. After building her game with Thomas Johansson, the 2002 Australian Open champion, she settled on a 23-year-old British former hitting partner called Tom Hill as her coach in 2018. She made her grand slam debut aged 20 at the 2015 US Open, qualifying at her first attempt. At 18 in 2013, she moved from Greece to Barcelona by herself which “made me realise that I have to live my own life, just take my decisions for myself”. The progress from there was slow but constant. She cites Aryna Sabalenka, career high junior ranking of 225, as another player who defied convention: “Seeing these players now, I don’t want to sound arrogant, but at the moment being the better player than some of them, it proves … you can tell many juniors that you don’t have to be a top junior to make it to the top.” Looking back to those days and seeing how she has overtaken some of them is an understandable source of satisfaction for Sakkari. I could clearly see that they were another level.”
#MARIA SAKKARI PRO#
In time she eventually transitioned to the ITF pro circuit, the lowest rungs of professional tennis, and she would see many of the far more successful junior players, with all of their sponsors and hype, also trying to reach the top of the game: “They were so far away,” she says. If she didn’t succeed, she already had an alternative route in mind: “I was thinking of maybe going to college or studying something in Greece.” When she decided to pursue her career as a professional, she initially gave herself two years just to see how things would go. Sakkari, now 26, was unremarkable as a junior player, reaching a career high of only 203. “My father paid so much for me to play tennis and I’m very grateful for what he has done and they have both done in order for me to achieve my goals.”Ī result of treading her own path without outside help is that it has been uncommonly long. “I was lucky to have parents like my parents because they invested a lot and I had zero support from federations or sponsors,” says Sakkari, whose mother, Angeliki Kanellopoulou, was once ranked No 43 in the world.
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