M Sakkari, the tennis champion of Greece, won her opening match at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics on Saturday with a straightforward victory, defeating Anett Kontaveit, the tennis champion of Estonia.
M Sakkari Olympic Games Tokyo 2020
M Sakkari won both sets easily, 7-5 and 6-2, to take the match in around 92 minutes.
The match did not start off well for the Greek player, ranked 19th in the world.
There she was, down 2-5, with the Estonian player appearing to have the set won for sure.
But the true character of the Spartan woman shone through, as she turned a terrible result around in a matter of minutes, from 2-5 to 7-5.
M Sakkari was in a stronger position in the second set, which she went on to win with a 6-2 score.
One of Greece’s Emerging Tennis Stars
This year, M Sakkari came incredibly close to becoming the first Greek tennis player to compete in the French Open finals.
She was defeated by Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic, 2-1 in sets.
The two weeks were certainly not without their highlights, as M Sakkari made history by reaching the Grand Slam semifinals for the first time by a Greek woman.
As of May 17, 2021, she was ranked as high as No. 18 in singles play, which was her all-time high. As of September 9, 2019, her highest WTA doubles ranking is 169.
At the 2019 Morocco Open, M Sakkari triumphed over Johanna Konta to win her first WTA Tour singles title.
In September of 2017, M Sakkari advanced to the fourth round of the US Open by defeating No. 22 seed Amanda Anisimova in only 55 minutes.
Quickly prevailing 6-3, 6-1, the No. 15 seed became the first Greek woman to go to the second week at Flushing Meadows since Eleni Daniilidou in 2004.
As of the year 2020, M Sakkari had progressed to the round of 16 at both the Australian Open and the US Open.
So date, her highest Grand Slam result is a Semifinal appearance at the 2021 French Open.
The Greek tennis champion’s game is characterised by an aggressive, all-court approach that is built around her big serve and groundstrokes. With 144 aces in 31 matches played in 2020, M Sakkari ranked sixth overall.
The Greeks Have High Aspirations for the Tokyo Olympics Thanks to Stefanos Tsitsipas and M Sakkari
During the Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan, Stefanos Tsitsipas and M Sakkari won’t just compete against each other in singles, but also in mixed doubles.
Tsitsipas has often stated that he wants to make tennis famous in Greece because it is not currently very well-liked there. Apart from being an accomplished tennis player in general, one way to achieve this goal would be to bring home an Olympic gold medal for his country.
