By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Sunday September 24, 2023
Three weeks after leaving a press convention in tears on the US Open, and expressing want to take a break from the game, Maria Sakkari has returned to the winner’s circle after a spectacular run to the title in Guadalajara.
The 28-year-old Greek could have been confused about what to do subsequent after dropping her third consecutive Grand Slam match on the US Open, however after that crushing loss in New York she took the time to look inward, and ended up rising from her funk with a smile on her face.
Full credit score to Sakkari, a persistent perennial top-tenner who by no means lacks for effort, even when she does typically show a penchant for sabotaging herself within the largest moments. How else may we clarify Sakkari’s six-match dropping streak in finals, or her struggles in 2023? She’s just too proficient to wrestle so persistently in these defining moments.
After some soul-searching in current weeks, Sakkari realized that she has been being too laborious on herself. She made it a degree to smile and begin having fun with the game she loves as soon as once more.
Rating an help from American Coco Gauff – the newly topped Grand Slam champion has been preaching the identical strategy this yr, and it has paid off for her as effectively.
“I actually appreciated what Coco [Gauff] mentioned on the US Open, about how different folks have greater issues than we have now once we lose a tennis match, and he or she’s spot on,” Sakkari advised WTA Insider. “I stored interested by that, and that gave me power.
“On the finish of the day, it is only a tennis match. I am wholesome, and that is an important factor. Everybody round me, my household, are completely happy and wholesome. These are the issues that I took a while to consider, to recollect what’s essential in life. Everybody focuses on their very own issues, whether or not they’re massive, small, essential or not essential. You neglect what is going on on in the remainder of the world.”
“I play tennis for a residing. That is fairly cool. I did not give myself an opportunity to take pleasure in it up to now.
“I advised myself, you owe it to your self to have enjoyable. And that is what occurred.” 🏆@WTA_insider speaks with Guadalajara champ @mariasakkari after her maiden WTA 1000 title 🗣️
— wta (@WTA) September 24, 2023
Haters get an help as effectively. Sakkari admitted that social media critics have weighed on – and motivated her – throughout her current struggles.
“We stay in 2023. Social media is part of our on a regular basis life,” Sakkari advised WTA Insider. “You can not keep away from it. Coco mentioned she is aware of the person names. I do know them, too. I do know the individual with a YouTube channel who posts all my semifinal losses, all my closing losses. I am conscious.”
“The satisfaction now, I can’t describe it. If you show all these folks unsuitable, it is gasoline. For me, it labored as gasoline. I knew it was going to come back, I did not know when. Thanks to them. They gave me power.”