Maria Sakkari

Surprisingly, Sakkari was never that prolific a tennis player when it comes to her junior career. The Greek had not won a single title as a junior. Her best performance came in 2010 at the second Mostar Open where she finished as a runner-up after losing to Gabriela Pantuckova in straight sets in the final. Her junior career came to an end in 2014 with her highest ITF junior ranking being 203 which was achieved in 2011. It is highly impressive that despite her woes as a junior, Sakkari has molded her craft to perfection ever since she turned professional and today, she is the third best player in the world.

Sakkari’s first and only WTA triumph came in 2019 when she was victorious at the Morocco Open. She defeated the likes of Olga Danilovic, Isabella Shinikova, Elise Mertens, Alison van Uytvanck and Johanna Konta. After that win, she climbed from 51 to 39 in the WTA rankings. 2021 saw Sakkari break into the WTA top 10 rankings and it was also the year when she recorded her best Grand Slam performances. At the French Open that year, the Greek beat the likes of Iga Swiatek, Sofia Kenin, Elise Mertens and others. However, she would then lose to Barbora Krejcikova despite having a match point. Sakkari then shone on the hard courts of the US Open, beating Karolina Pliskova and Bianca Andreescu to reach the semi-finals of the competition. She would, however, lose to eventual champion Emma Raducanu. The year ended with Sakkari scripting a special piece of history as she made it through to the WTA Finals, becoming the first Greek player in history to do so.

According to WTAfans, Sakkari will have a net worth of about USD 7.2 million by 2022, all because to the competitions she won. She has also reportedly made an estimated USD 7 million in prize money throughout the course of her career. Her finest performance of the 2022 season came in the round of 32 of the Australian Open 2022 against Veronika Kudermetova. At the BNP Paribas Open 2022, Sakkari also defeated Paula Badosa, the world’s third-ranked player at the time.

Maria was born on July 25, 1995, in Athens, Greece, to Konstantinos Sakkaris and her mother, former tennis player Angeliki Kanellopoulou. Angeliki won two championships on the ITF circuit and advanced to the quarterfinals of the 1984 Summer Olympics. Additionally, she twice advanced to the third round of the French Open. She reached a career high of No. 43 in the world. When Maria was six years old, her parents introduced her to tennis. When she was 18 years old, her parents convinced her to go to Barcelona in order to have better training opportunities. Although none of her parents became coaches, they can frequently be seen in the players’ box.