"I admire her because she's a great athlete" - Sakkari on Gauff ahead of match today

Maria Sakkari will play Coco Gauff later today and despite having a 3-1 lead in H2H matches with the American, Sakkari knows it will be a tough match.

They played in Rome last year as well and the lone win for Gauff in this matchup came then. It was a superb match with an iconic scoreline ending 6-1 1-6 6-1 for Gauff. Ahead of their clash in Rome today, Sakkari said:

"I admire her because she's a great athlete. She's a wonderful girl, which for me is more important than anything else. The way she has handled her success, She was 15 when she broke through. It was very clever from herself and from the people around her the way they handled everything."

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She continued:

"We played each other in Doha, which was of course hard court, different conditions. I trust my clay-court game. I think it's going to be a great match for everyone to watch."

Match starts later today and we will have a report for you once it's finished.