After advancing to her first Slam semifinal, at Roland Garros in May—and becoming the first Greek woman ever to go that deep in a major—Maria Sakkari signed the camera on court with the word “Hellas,” surrounded by a heart.
Hellas is Greek for, well, Greece.
Greece may be the birthplace of the Olympic Games, but it has never been known as a tennis powerhouse. Suddenly the nation of 10 million has two major tennis stars: No. 3 Stefanos Tsitsipas, a finalist at this year’s French Open, and Sakkari, a semifinalist at Roland Garros and up to a career-high No. 18 on the women’s tour.
Sakkari, into the semifinals for the first time at the US Open after soundly beating Karolina Pliskova, the No. 4 seed, is not content to be the other Greek.
The compact, 5-foot-8 and powerfully built Sakkari has been muscling a number of top-rated players around this year. The Greek triumphed over her nemesis Bianca Andreescu, the 2019 US Open champion who had never lost in Flushing Meadows, in a herculean battle that lasted three hours, 30 minutes and went to 2:13 a.m.—the latest women’s match in US Open history. It was a tantalizing bout of brutal shotmaking and test of wills.
Sakkari said what changed midway in the match is that she willed herself to be bolder. “By telling myself to be more brave, it’s not like, ‘Maria, now be brave, and you’re brave,’” said the Greek. “It’s just a process in practice and everything that has helped me to be more brave.”
Before her titanic match against Andreescu, the 26-year-old Greek upset 10th-seeded Petra Kvitova – the Czech two-time Slam winner who is normally the one pushing players around on court. Sakkari dismantled Kvitova in two very convincing sets, 6-4, 6-3, winning 89 percent of her first-serve points.
