Maria Sakkari has defended herself against criticism regarding her poor semi-finals record after advancing to the final of the DC Open.

World No. 9 Sakkari has reached her first WTA final since the Guadalajara Open in October last year. The Greek player defeated top seed Jessica Pegula in three sets, 6-3, 4-6, 6-2, in order to progress from the semi-final.

Sakkari has received some criticism in recent months for struggling to succeed in semi-final matches. This season, the 28-year-old lost to Petra Martic in the semi-finals of the Linz Open, where Sakkari was the top-seeded player. The semi-finals were also an obstacle for her at the Qatar Open, where she lost to Pegula.

In the post-match press conference, Sakkari stated that she no longer paid attention to criticism about her semi-final record.

"It wasn't really on my mind, because I really tried to block that semifinal thing that has been going on and on for so long and in every different platform. I just don't really care anymore. They have made YouTube videos of my losing semifinals. I'm, like, Whatever. People are just so dumb," she said. Sakkari also underlined that reaching as many semi-finals as she has is certainly not something to be ashamed of, as it shows her ability to progress deep into tournaments.

"You know, I'm telling you, I think if you were to ask a lot of players on the tour if they would take my semifinal record, they would say yes, because I'm not losing first round. I'm losing in semifinal. So at the same time, it's nothing bad about it," she added.

Nevertheless, Sakkari did reveal that she was happy to have made it through her first semi-final in a while and expressed her hope that she can take it one step further and lift the trophy at the WTA 500 event in Washington. "But obviously I had it in my mind that I want to overcome that for this year, and, you know, it's something that I'm happy about that it happened this week. But I'm not done yet. That's how I feel," she said. Sakkari will face world No. 7 Coco Gauff in the final today, August 6.