Maria Sakkari dumped out of Roland Garros by Muchova

Sunday, 28 May 2023 at 17:37

Former Roland Garros semi-finalist Maria Sakkari has been dumped out of the event by Karolina Muchova who was a proper mine in the draw this year.

Nobody really wanted to face Karolina Muchova in the first round of Roland Garros but somebody needed to. The draw made it so Maria Sakkari faced her and it proved to be her undoing. The Greek player has been playing pretty okay lately but Muchova is a very experienced player who knows how to go deep at a grand slam.

Today she simply proved too much for Sakkari who played a really dreadful match. She couldn't have possibly played a worse match to be fair but much of what went wrong for her was directly influenced by Muchova.

First set

The first set opened well for Sakkari who found herself up 3-0 early as Muchova was struggling to find a really good rhythm. Sakkari was looking very confident in her game but when Muchova found her best tennis, things changed, dramatically so. The Czech player made it 3-3 with some great play and then broke for the 6-5 lead.

She didn't serve it out because she got broken but in the tiebreak Muchova still proved a bit better 7-5.

Read also

2023 French Open Roland Garros ATP and WTA Prize Money and Points Breakdown with €49.6m on offer

Second set

The second set was one where Sakkari clearly felt the pressure as she didn't play that well. She had 9 winners and 11 unforced errors in the first set which is far but the second set saw her post a line of 7 winners and 24 unforced errors. She was just rushing from one to another and Muchova had plenty of chances to get it.

It took her a while as she only did it late 7-5 but it was a good result considering that she was down 2-0 early in the second set. Sakkari was up a break in both sets.