Maria Sakkari had a rough start to 2021. She was stuck in her room for two weeks of hard quarantine in Australia, and the 25-year-old, a hard-charging physical phenom known for her spartan mentality, admits that the experience took a toll on her. It caused her to lose what she calls “her identity” on the court.
This week in Miami, where she is now through to the semifinals for the first time, the Greek star talked about the experience and explained why she is just now rounding into the form she seeks.
“I think after the two weeks in Australia, stuck in the room, I lost a little bit of my identity, which is being aggressive but also making a lot of balls and playing physical matches,” she said on Monday after saving six match points to stun Jessica Pegula in the round of 16. “Even though I had a couple of good wins after that, I wasn't feeling it.”
Sakkari says that she has been working with her coach Tom Hill and gradually getting back to her grinding, punishing game.
“So after Dubai we spent a lot of time on court, to be honest,” she said. “We just tried to get back that [mentality] and keep my aggressive part and get back my, how can I say? - my boring game. This is how we call it with Tom. It feels now that I'm getting it back. I think these two weeks were very hard for my game, and, you know, I just was not feeling myself.”
Sakkari says she has made some subtle changes to the way she prepares, but says that her game, essentially, remains the same.
“I'm warming up longer, warming up almost for one hour before the match, even though conditions are brutal here, but it helps me,” Sakkari said. “I watch videos of my players, of the opponents that I'm gonna play since, you know—so we are trying different things. It works really well. But it's not something that tennis-wise that I'm doing differently than I have been doing before.”
All of the positive developments have helped the Greek continue a spectacular run against the Top 5. Today in Miami she stunned Naomi Osaka for her fourth consecutive win against Top 5 players.
Sakkari says her tactics against Osaka were solid, but she wasn’t about to tell the press what worked so well for her.
“With all my respect, I'm not going to reveal the strategy, not even a little bit,” she said. “You know, there is a lot of respect from my side to her side. She's a great champion, and I think, you know, I mean, what she has done the last three years is unreal.”
The triumph was Sakkari’s second career victory over Osaka in five tries. She will move on to face either Bianca Andreescu or Sara Sorribes Tormo in the semis.
“I was super positive, and I believed in myself before entering the match,” she said. “And I knew that I can do it, because I already did it once.”