"I was actually crying on the phone, I didn't want to be there" - Sakkari on loneliness while being on tour

Maria Sakkari opened up about her struggles, as part of WTA's 'The Real Me' campaign designed to raise awareness about mental health.

The life of a tennis professional can seem exciting from the outside due to the travels but players spend most of the time around courts and very rarely do get to go out and explore. You are away from family and friends, surrounded by your team and tennis and all of that can get pretty boring quickly. Sakkari experienced that and it was tough to battle the loneliness:

"Tennis can be very lonely, yeah there are times, especially this year like there were times that I was calling my mom and I was actually crying on the phone because I just didn’t want to yeah I was feeling lonely. I didn’t want to be there and I felt like you no a little girl just calling her mom and just crying because I didn’t want to be wherever that was."

Check out the full talk below.