Maria Sakkari: Go big or Go bust in 2023

(Photo: WTA)

“If she beats you, she beats you. You don’t beat yourself.” Nodding along, Maria Sakkari locked in on the words coming from her long-time coach Tom Hill. All of Team Greece huddle around them, but they were the only two that mattered.

A five-year bond that has seen the Greek star rise from the top 50 in the world, to March 2022 when she climbed to world No.3 – the joint-highest (alongside Stefanos Tsitsipas) ranking for a Greek player in tennis history.

Since their partnership began in 2018, Hill and Sakkari have endured a turbulent journey on-court with joy and despair teetering on either side of the baseline. In the moments that carve champions, the world No.6 has often found the outside line of heartache.

2022 was the year Sakkari ascended to heights that her, nor her country ever seemed imaginable. From then on, it proved to be one of the toughest years of her life. The very moment Sakkari reached world No.3, somewhere a switch had been clicked.

She had ended 2021 with two Grand Slam semi-final runs (French Open and US Open) and started 2022 blisteringly. She won 16 of 21 matches and reached two finals, yet it was her run to the Indian Wells final that ended up halting Sakkari’s fine season.

She left Tennis Paradise with more baggage than she had arrived with. Not the trophy, but the unwelcomed burden of being world No.3 which weighs heavy even on the largest of shoulders.

“She never thought she could be No.3 in the world,” said Hill talking to Eurosport.

“We never talked rankings, we never said anything like that, and then when they said it at that moment, ‘You’re now No.3 in the world’, it was like, ‘Woah.”

The realisation for Sakkari that she’d gone from the hunter to the hunted was too much. Disappointment during the clay season followed and the tough times on court opened the door for darker times off it.

“In Madrid I won’t say ‘depressed’ because I don’t want to belittle the experiences of the people who suffer from that but I was just very…my room was dark, I didn’t want to get out of bed, I didn’t want to do anything with my team, I didn’t enjoy practice,” Sakkari admitted.

(AP Photo: John Minchillo)

Early exits at Roland Garros, Wimbledon and Flushing Meadows caused the Greek to enlist the support of a sports psychologist, one who she had previously worked with. Following in the footsteps of the world No.1 Iga Swiatek, the benefits of a sports psychologist in the camp quickly showed.

The relationship between the three-time Grand Slam champion and Daria Abramowicz, her psychologist, worked wonders for the Pole. Since Abramowicz joined Team Swiatek, the 21-year-old has ascended to the top of the sport and in 2022 was near enough untouchable ending the season 67-9 with two Slams and a further six titles.

In their short time together, Sakkari has been delighted with the results of her re-discovered partnership. Within two weeks of their reunion, Sakkari stormed to the Guadalajara final (her second masters final) and later advanced to the semi-finals of the WTA Finals in Fort Worth to end the year.

“I think it was probably the best decision we’ve made,” Sakkari said.

“She has helped me in the past so much and she has now helped me again just to overcome this difficult, dark place that I was in. I’m very grateful to have a person like her next to me.”

The 27-year-old ended 2022 in the same place she started, ranked No.6 in the world. On reflection, it’s a year she can be proud of. She was only one of three women to remain in the top 10 and recovered from a tricky seven-month period to end the season on a high.

Yet, one question has loomed large over Sakkari throughout her career and it grew even greater by the end of 2022. Will she ever win big?

In a sport of fine margins where the difference between in and out is 1-2 inches of white line, the highs and lows often rub shoulders. A final in tennis only magnifies it. For Sakkari, she’s found herself on the wrong side of the border too often.

The Greeks relationship with the big occasion has not been a healthy marriage. She tasted defeat in the first five finals of her career before eventually winning her first title (Heraklion 10K, April 2014).

By the time she joined the tour, she had managed seven titles on the ITF circuit but winning on the biggest stage presented an entirely different challenge. It took until April 2019 when Sakkari claimed her first and only WTA title in Rabat.

In the WTA top 10, Sakkari holds the fewest titles. You have to go down to world No.24 Marie Bouzkova to find anyone with as few titles as the world No.6.

After her maiden success in Rabat, she began stumbling before reaching a final. Sakkari would suffer nine semi-final defeats before making it to her first final in over two years at Ostrava in September 2021 – she would lose in straight sets to Anett Kontaveit (6-2, 7-5).

Although the penultimate hurdle had finally been climbed, the next one at the finish line caused greater struggles for the Greek.

Last year, this struggle came to the forefront. Sakkari reached four finals, losing all four – the worst finals record of 2022 across the ATP and WTA. It was not only the final loss itself, but the manner in how she fell. Sakkari has won just one set in her last five finals.

Yet, as she met Jessica Pegula at the net having been defeated soundly in the Guadalajara Masters final (6-2, 6-3) she wore a smile, with her arms widespread as she embraced the American. A look of acceptance and motivation painted across her face.

The rough road that she’d taken during 2022 had ultimately led her to the WTA Finals. A journey with days behind the darkness of closed curtains and pieces of a smashed racket to pick up was at its end.

(EFE: Ray Acevedo)

With a clean slate ahead of her for 2023, Hill knows his prodigies’ time to step up is now.

“Next season she can dominate, I see no reason why not,” he said.

“I’ve been almost five years with Maria now, so we’ve gone from bad times, good times and I want to be there for her when she wins her first Slam. Because it will happen, there’s no way it won’t happen.”

There is every chance that Sakkari further cements herself at the top of the sport in 2023. The Greek had won her opening three singles matches without dropping a set in the United Cup but encountered trouble against Italian Martina Trevisan in the Sydney Finals.

Having rallied from a set and a break down, Sakkari won the tiebreak to go to a third set against the world No.27. From 4-2 down in the final set, Sakkari forced Trevisan to serve to stay in the match at 5-4 up.

Playing out of her skin, Trevisan was now serving for the match with a raucous Italian team inspiring her on from the corner.

“If she beats you, she beats you. You don’t beat yourself,” Hill said to a fixated Sakkari.

Trevisan prevailed and Italy won. Yet, this time Sakkari hadn’t lost to herself. The Italian had just played the match of her life. There was anger steaming from Sakkari’s ears as she departed the Ken Rosewall Arena but this defeat felt different.

She had lost on behalf of her country and that stung her. When that frustration cools and she casts her eye to Melbourne for the Australian Open, the 27-year-old will have no reason not to be confident.

Sakkari has already conquered the mountain of doubts. Now, she sits atop the summit looking out at what lies ahead for 2023.