"I was a little bit nervous but I had faith in my game" admits Sakkari after win over Rybakina

No.6 seed Maria Sakkari moved into a WTA 1000 semifinal for the fifth time in her career with a 7-5, 6-4 win over No.17 seed Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan.

It was a rough start for Sakkari who was down a break against Rybakina but rallied all the way to win the first set with 7-5. Speaking after the match, she said:

"I think I had a rough start. I was a little bit nervous. But then I just had faith in my game. I knew that if I could break her back, I would get back into the match. Making a lot of balls after being 4-1 down gave me a good chance to come back into the match."

She further said:

"I see that I'm actually very calm and very confident that it's only a break. Okay, if someone serves lights out, it's too good. I still have the first set, two more sets to go. That doesn't really matter. I just accepted the fact I had a bad start, just tried to change things."

Sakkari also noticed improvement in her agame across the board saying:

"I feel like I've improved on my serve, I've improved on my groundstrokes. I don't have a huge hole in my game. There are a lot of things that I can improve, which is something good. Especially mentally, sometimes I have to just be a little bit stronger. But I'm working on that and I think I'll get where I want to get."