By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Friday March 15, 2024
Maria Sakkari fought through rain, cold and Coco Gauff to reach her second Indian Wells final in three years.
Photo Source: Getty
Indian Wells – You just never know in tennis. It’s a sport where yawners can turn into instant classics, where a few points won or lost can completely change the complexion of a match.
Case in point: on a rainy, chilly Friday night at the Indian Wells Garden, Maria Sakkari was headed for an uneventful straight sets victory in her semifinal with Coco Gauff at the BNP Paribas Open, when suddenly the script was flipped.
Leading 6-4, 5-2 ninth-seeded Sakkari failed to serve out the victory twice, as Gauff broke twice and saved three match points to force a decider, then moved ahead by a break in the third.
If the sky was falling on Sakkari, she didn’t appear to notice. Credit the Greek for handling the chaos confidently – she rose above the fray, took the play to Gauff the rest of the way and sauntered to a 6-4, 6-7(5), 6-3 victory to set a final with top-seeded Iga Swiatek on Sunday.
“I'm very proud of myself that I kept my nerves, and then I just fought hard in that third set,” Gauff, who is playing her first tournament with new coach David Witt in her box, said.
In a match that was delayed by rain twice, for over two hours and 15 minutes in total, Sakkari took advantage of a listless Gauff in the early going, peppering the Americans forehand to great effect as she built her lead.
At one point, after the first set, Gauff asked the on-court doctor to give her something to help her nausea. It seemed like she was headed for an easy loss – and she would have had a good excuse had that been the case.
But the 20-year-old surged to life with her back against the wall, and suddenly played with reckless abandon, dictating rallies and closing off points at the net whenever she had the chance.
Gauff, hoping to win the title and become the first American woman to win the BNP Paribas Open since Serena Williams in 2001, was impressive in her revival, but she couldn’t make it stick. Sakkari restored order in the third set and enforced her gameplan down the stretch as she won six of the final eight games to finish off the win.
“I knew from the beginning it was going to be very tough,” she said. “A lot of things happened today. Rain delays. Obviously that second set could have been different, but I was thinking of that finish line too much, and then I was just thinking too much on how to close out the match. That didn't really help me. It freaked me out a little bit. I was too nervous.”
Sakkari is into the final at Indian Wells for the second time in three years – she has won 14 of her last 16 in the California desert.