In July 2026, Maria Sakkari played a WTA final in the city where she was born. The tour had not staged an event in Athens since 1990. She reached the final of the Athens Open without dropping a set, led by a break in both sets against Barbora Krejcikova, and lost 7-6(5), 6-3. Her mother, Angeliki Kanellopoulou, had also reached a tour-level final on Greek soil. By then, Sakkari’s career had already gone further than any Greek woman’s before her.
The Greek firsts
Sakkari was born in Athens on 25 July 1995 and turned professional in 2015. In 2021 she became the first Greek woman to break into the WTA top 10, reaching No. 10 on 27 September, and the first from her country to qualify for the WTA Finals. On 21 March 2022 she reached No. 3, the highest ranking ever held by a Greek woman.
Her first WTA title came on clay in Rabat in 2019.
2021 and the two semifinals
2021 was the season that made her name. Sakkari reached the semifinals at both Roland Garros and the US Open, and went on to the semifinals of the WTA Finals. She reached the WTA Finals semifinals again in 2022, after a year in which she finished No. 6 for the second season running and reached two WTA 1000 finals, at Indian Wells and Guadalajara.
The ranking brought its own weight. After losing in the second round of the 2022 US Open as the third seed, she told reporters she had struggled with the higher profile that came with No. 3, and that on some days she had not enjoyed tennis.
Guadalajara 2023
Between Rabat and her second title, Sakkari lost six straight finals, including the 2022 Guadalajara final to Jessica Pegula and the 2023 Washington final to Coco Gauff. The run ended in Guadalajara in September 2023. Seeded second, she beat Caroline Dolehide 7-5, 6-3 in the final, without dropping a set all week.
“It’s been four-and-a-half years since I won my first title, and I just finally won my second one,” she said afterward. She played a third straight WTA Finals that year, entering as first alternate after Karolina Muchova withdrew, and went 0-3 in the group stage.
The slump and the return
Sakkari slid down the rankings through 2024 and 2025, and Tennis365 reported she came close to falling outside the top 100 before better form late in 2025. At the Qatar Open in February 2026, ranked No. 52, she beat Jasmine Paolini and then top seed Iga Swiatek, 2-6, 6-4, 7-5, breaking in the final game after losing a 5-2 lead in the third set. She lost the semifinal to Muchova. The Athens final followed in July.
Playing style
Sakkari is a right-hander with a two-handed backhand, listed at 1.72m. Her two semifinal runs in 2021 came on opposite surfaces, clay in Paris and hard court in New York, and both of her titles came on different surfaces too: clay in Rabat, hard court in Guadalajara.
Grand Slam record
- Australian Open: fourth round (2020, 2022)
- Roland Garros: semifinals (2021)
- Wimbledon: third round (2017, 2019, 2022, 2024)
- US Open: semifinals (2021)
Season snapshot — 15 September 2026
Ranked No. 35, according to the WTA. Career high No. 3 (21 March 2022). Career singles titles: 2.
After Athens, Sakkari won the first set against Swiatek in the round of 32 in Cincinnati before losing 4-6, 6-1, 6-1. Seeded 32nd at the US Open, she beat Robin Montgomery in the first round and lost in the second to Yuliia Starodubtseva, according to Sky Sports’ results. The Asian swing is next.
This snapshot is dated and will change. The career record above does not.
