Sakkari sails into Indian Wells semifinal over Rybakina

Maria Sakkari overcame a slow start against Elena Rybakina 7-5 6-4 to secure a spot in the BNP Paribas Open Indian Wells semifinal.

The start of the match featured a bit of a slow start by Sakkari who lost her serve in the first service game she played but that did not matter much. Sakkari slowly found her rhythm attacking Rybakina with very deep returns which made the player from Kazakhstan uncomfortable. Rybakina is not the greatest mover on the court and the angles that Sakkari created gave her trouble.

She did not stay away from her hard-hitting style which was a bad thing considering that the weird angles resulted in her committing quite a few mistakes. Her serve also was not able to bail her out and slowly Sakkari was able to level the score. Eventually, she even added another break before finishing off the first set with 7-5.

The 2nd set featured a pretty much similar scenario where Sakkari continued her plan which worked. She took a break from Rybakina which almost became a double break lead at 3-1 but the big-hitting Rybakina was able to hold her serve 3-2. Sakkari continued playing well, especially when serving.

She was pretty spectacular on her first serve winning the majority of points comfortably. That allowed her to win close out the match with 6-4 for the semifinal.