'Tennis is my passion' - Maria Sakkari about her motivation

Maria Sakkari is the top-ranked WTA player from Greece and her rise has been steady ever since she broke into the top 100 in 2017.

While her rise has been steady she has yet to have a breakthrough performance announcing herself to the tennis world. Even so, the name Maria Sakkari is well known to tennis fans around the world. In an exclusive interview with Greek City Times she spoke about what drove her to tennis:

“For me, tennis was always my passion, especially because my mum was a player, it really made me believe that I could pursue tennis to one day be my job. So when I was growing up I was always working as hard as I could in training with the vision to one day compete as a professional.”

In 2020 she managed one of her biggest victories defeating Serena Williams, a player she admired growing up:

“It was definitely a bit surreal, she’s a player you watch growing up and idolize for being one of the best players of all time. So stepping on to a match court to play her was definitely a childhood dream of mine, then to win the match it was just crazy and it showed me that all the hard work I was putting into practice every day is paying off."

The popularly called 'Sakkattack' explained what it feels like for her when she is on the court:

"Usually I am focusing on playing the game I want to play in order to put my best level out on the court to give me the best chance of winning the match.”  

She also talked about her favorite memory which was winning her first title in Rabat at the 2019 Morocco. She also spoke about her love for fitness and working out in general explaining that she did not find quarantine difficult because she had enough room to exercise.

If you want to see how that looks like check it out below.