THAT is how you finish a match 🔥 @mariasakkari cracks 38 winners to pass her first #AO2023 test @wwos • @espn • @eurosport • @wowowtennis • #AusOpen
Superb Sakkari soars past first Australian Open test, 2022 finalist Collins survives in three hour Kalinskaya epic
WTAMonday, 16 January 2023 at 04:46
Days after being part of the Netflix Break Point series, Maria Sakkari turned her attention back to the job at hand at the Australian Open with a winning start to her season in a 6-1, 6-4 victory over China's Yuan Yue in 94 minutes.
As ever with Sakkari, it wasn't that simple with the Greek showing her tenacious fighting spirit to come from 3-1 down in the second set to seal it 6-4.
This fightback from Yue was in full evidence as she hit five winners in the first two games including an ace to lead 2-0 before having a point to lead 4-1 before Sakkari broke back and won the last five out of six games in superb fashion. It was a superb 38 winners in all for Sakkari and now she moves on to face Diana Schnaider in the second round who is on debut.
Also into the second round was Danielle Collins who fought through a tough test against Anna Kalinskaya. The 2022 finalist sealed it in just over three hours 7-5, 5-7, 6-4.
It was a match that had everything and was one of the best of the day so far as Collins injured her bad knee but still battled through with heavy strapping as well as the trademark celebrations from the American.
Asking for the physio multiple times during the win, it will be unknown yet whether the damage sustained may take her out of the tournament but defending ranking points, they have been saved for now.
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