Maria Sakkari feeling confident ahead of showdown with Jasmine Paolini in Madrid - "I feel like my game is back on track"
WTA
After a slow start to the 2025 WTA season, Greek tennis star Maria Sakkari seems set to right the ship as she undergoes a resurgence at the 2025 Madrid Open.
The former World No.3 has looked impressive thus far in Madrid, recording two straight set wins as she advances to the third round. Sakkari is set to face sixth-seeded Jasmine Paolini, who cruised past Britain's Katie Boulter in a 6-1, 6-2 victory earlier on Friday.
Her confidence is the highest it's been in months, says Sakkari
Seeing her ranking fall from the top 10 to World No.82 was disheartening, but Sakkari believes she is in a better place now than she was during her slump over the past few months.
"I keep saying to people that are around me that I’m happier now, even though I’m 89th in the world (in the live rankings) than I was when I was three,” revealed Sakkari in a press conference after her second round win over Magda Linette in Madrid. “Because I feel like those months that I was away, I worked on myself. I worked on myself on not caring that the other players are in Asia or they’re playing the Finals and I’m not there.
“I’m just super happy to be back on the tour. And that’s going to give me a lot of strength for the next few years. I feel like my game is back on track. Obviously, if I want to beat those players, no matter what round it is, I have to play like today, and even better. I know how they feel playing me, because I’ve been there. I might have a big number next to my name but I know they respect me as a player. So it’s going to be tough both ways.”
“I’m just super happy to be back on the tour. And that’s going to give me a lot of strength for the next few years. I feel like my game is back on track. Obviously, if I want to beat those players, no matter what round it is, I have to play like today, and even better. I know how they feel playing me, because I’ve been there. I might have a big number next to my name but I know they respect me as a player. So it’s going to be tough both ways.”
Growing up in a household where soccer was king, my earliest memories are filled with chants from packed stadiums and the rhythm of a ball being passed across neighborhood streets. But somewhere along the way, the quiet elegance and raw emotion of tennis pulled me in. What began as a curiosity became a lifelong passion; not just for the sport itself, but for the stories it tells: of grit, of heartbreak, of improbable comebacks and human resilience.
As a tennis writer, I bring the observational lens of someone who didn’t grow up in the sport, but fell in love with it as an outsider; a perspective that lets me see both its technical beauty and its emotional depth. Over the years working with TennisUpToDate, I’ve had the privilege of reaching more than 3.5 million readers worldwide, with one of my features ranking among the site’s top three articles.
With a background in storytelling and a creative mind always searching for meaning beyond the scoreboard, I aim to craft narratives that go deeper than results and rankings. Whether it’s a rising star breaking through or a veteran fighting off Father Time, I try to capture the heartbeat behind the headlines.
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