Maria Sakkari matches historic milestone for Greek tennis

Maria Sakkari is now the joint highest ranked Greek singles player ever, man or woman, matching compatriot Stefanos Tsitsipas for the accolade after her Indian Wells run.

Despite losing in the final to Iga Swiatek, Sakkari’s results at the WTA 1000 event see her up to third in the world rankings, three higher than her previous career-high of sixth. This makes her the first Greek woman ever to be within the WTA top 5 for singles and just the second on either the WTA or ATP tours after Tsitsipas first breached the men’s top three in August.

Sakkari was clearly excited about the achievement, showing it on her Instagram story. Looking ahead from Indian Wells to the Miami Open, Sakkari is seeded fourth at the WTA 1000 event in Florida and will face either Nuria Parrizas Diaz or Beatriz Haddad Maia in the second round after receiving a first-round bye.

Surprisingly, Sakkari has risen to number three in the world with just one career tour-level title to her name, coming all the way back in May 2019 in Rabat, Morocco. She will be looking to add to that tally in 2022 having reached two finals so far in the new year and recording a win-loss record of 16-5 to date.