By Richard Pagliaro | @Tennis_Now | Saturday, August 5, 2023
Seeing her 6-3, 4-1 lead slip away against Jessica Pegula today, Maria Sakkari was in no mood for slipping from another semifinal slope.
Winless in five prior semifinals this season, Sakkari snapped her semifinal slide with committed closing kick.
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The fourth-seeded Greek toppled the top-seeded Pegula 6-3, 4-6, 6-2 to reach her first final of the season at the Mubadala Citi DC Open.
Sakkari snapped a streak of six straight semifinal losses today.
Tomorrow, she aims to shatter an 0-5 record in hard-court finals and capture her maiden-hard court championship when she faces Coco Gauff for the title.
“I played four finals last year, so I don’t know why everyone is, like, so, you know, crazy about me losing in the semifinals,” Sakkari told the media in Washington, DC. “I think that I have been doing pretty well. I have been top 10 for two years, but I guess that everyone has something to say.
“So at the same time, you know, it is what it is. I don’t really care about it anymore. I just want to win the title. Yeah, that’s for sure.”
Still, her semifinal struggles—Sakkari carried a 7-20 career semifinal record onto court today—didn’t deter the former Roland Garros semifinalist at crunch time today.
Sakkari said she’s aware of the focus on her recent final four futility—pointing out there’s even a YouTube video on the topic— and is determined to “overcome it.”
“I really tried to block that semifinal thing that has been going on and on for so long and in every different platform. I just don’t really care anymore,” Sakkari said with a smile. “They have made YouTube videos of my losing semifinals. I’m, like, Whatever. People are just so dumb (smiling).”
Ultimately, Sakkari said clearing the semifinal stumbling block will hopefully help vault her to her second career title and first on hard court.
“I’m telling you, I think if you were to ask a lot of players on the tour if they would take my semifinal record, they would say yes, because I’m not losing first round. I’m losing in semifinal,” Sakkari said. “So at the same time, it’s nothing bad about it.
“But obviously I had it in my mind that I want to overcome that for this year, and, you know, it’s something that I’m happy about that it happened this week. But I’m not done yet. That’s how I feel.”
Photo credit: Matthew Calvis
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