By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Wednesday August 25, 2020
Maria Sakkari notched one of the biggest wins of her career on Tuesday night in New York, but in the new normal, where there are no fans to celebrate with, she didn’t quite know what do when it was over.
There was also the fact that Serena Williams was clearly struggling. After the 23-time major champion had failed to serve out the match and squandered a 5-3 lead in the second set (and a 4-1 lead in the second-set tiebreaker), Williams was a shell of herself down the stretch. Williams had to save seven match points to avoid a third-set bagel, but Sakkari closed her out in short order in the next game, to notch the 5-7 7-6(5) 6-1 win.
“The only thing that felt weird is that I couldn't celebrate my win the way I wanted to,” Sakkari said after the match.
Williams was disappointed with the loss, and later admitted that she was cramping in the third set. More importantly, she was frustrated at her inability to close the match out when she had her chances.
“I literally should have won that match,” Williams set. “There was no excuse. So, I mean, yeah, it was hard, but I had so many opportunities to win, and I have to figure that one out, like how to start winning those matches again. There are really no excuses, to be honest.”
Sakkari’s victory means that just one Top 10 player has reached the quarter-finals on the WTA side—Naomi Osaka. Japan’s top player eased past Dayana Yastremska on Day 4, 6-3 6-1.
Osaka believes that her best tennis is still on the horizon.
“I know I have been training really hard and I have been playing really good in LA, so I could only hope to play well here,” she said. “Yeah, I feel like I'm not playing at the level I really want to right now, but I'm building up towards it.”
Osaka will face Anett Kontaveit next, while Sakkari will square off with Johanna Konta.