Maria Sakkari battles past Nuria Parrizas Diaz in Abu Dhabi

The Greek player made a winning return after somewhat of a disappointing stay in Australia where she failed to reach her goals but she looked far better here.

It was a straight-sets win for Sakkari who entered the match very motivated and it showed on the court. Aggressive and attacking, she was able to outhit her opponent and cruise to a rather quick 6-1 set. She did a lot of damage on the second serve of the Spaniard while being pretty solid on her own.

The second offered a lot more excitement for the spectators as both players were able to keep their serves intact following the first set. We arrived at 5-5 with neither player facing a single break point but then we saw plenty of excitement. Sakkari broke her opponent to take a 6-5 lead after a very long and tight game that featured multiple deuces.

Read also

Bianca Andreescu crashes out of Abu Dhabi against Putintseva

She wasn't able to close out the match after that but rather dropped her serve easily to send the match into a tiebreak. In the tiebreak, Sakkari managed to hold her composure and finish off the match to move on to the next round.