From World No.3 to Qualifying: Maria Sakkari forced to play for Adelaide International spot after ranking drop

Such has been the ranking fall for Maria Sakkari that the former World No.3 is part of a host of players who will have to qualify for the Adelaide International which takes place between 6-11 January, 2025 and completes the pre Australian Open preparation for many.

But such is the draw next week which is very much the best of the rest with Sabalenka, Gauff and Swiatek not playing features Jasmine Paolini, Jessica Pegula, Emma Navarro, Daria Kasatkina, Diana Shnaider, Paula Badosa and Mirra Andreeva.

But it will not feature Sakkari who has had to take a qualifying wildcard as third seed to even get in. The 29-year-old is projected to fall to World No.32 as of next week and had not played since the US Open until this past week.

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Even then she played with a shoulder injury that she had been battling for a number of months. But while she returned at the United Cup, it was a pretty uninspiring week as the Greek lost to Jessica Bouzas Maneiro and Elena Rybakina as Greece were easily beaten out of contention.

Stefanos Tsitsipas is also going through struggles right now albeit it was chimed that his at United Cup were due to over eating at breakfast over injury or lack of form. But Sakkari will have to open up against Saisai Zheng and given her drop off could find playing qualifying a normal occurrence for tournaments with stacked line-ups.

From one of the first names on the Entry Lists to Qualifying, a big year awaits. As well as Sakkari, other top names are forced to play in a pretty unbelievable draw including Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. She is top seed and could face Belinda Bencic if she gets past Laura Siegemund. While the Swiss will need to get past Moyuka Uchijima.

Leylah Fernandez faces Jodie Burrage with the Brit showing form this week in Auckland. Peyton Stearns, Sorana Cirstea, Marie Bouzkova as well as home hope Ajla Tomljanovic who will face Ashlyn Krueger also a standout this week in Brisbane are all also involved. Absolutely no guarantees for the big names in that draw either.

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