The 2021 season is confirmed, by far, as the best of Maria Sakkari throughout his sports career. At two Grand Slam semi-finals he has played this year (Roland Garros and US Open), Sakkari will add his participation in the Guadalajara WTA Finals (Mexico, November 10-17) thanks to his last Moscow WTA 500 win over Russian Anna Kalinskaya: 6-2, 1-0 and withdrawal of the Russian due to physical problems.
This circumstance does not in any way cloud the merits of a Maria who in 20 days will become the first Greek tennis player in history to qualify for the ‘Masters tournament’ (in the men’s circuit he had already achieved it Stefanos Tsitsipas). Sakkari is already the fifth racket to achieve his mathematical classification for the Finals, after his ticket was confirmed Ashleigh Barty, Aryna Sabalenka, Barbora Krejcikova and Karolina Pliskova. There are still three places at stake that between this week and next could be defined in favor of Iga Swiatek, Garbiñe Muguruza and Paula Badosa, who are listed virtually classified right now.
Kontaveit, rival of Garbiñe
Estonia Anett Kontaveit, ninth seeded in Moscow, will be Muguruza’s rival in the quarterfinals after defeating the German Petkovic 6-1, 6-4 on Thursday. In case of winning, the Venezuelan Hispano-Venezuelan would be automatically classified for the Finals and with the ticket to the Moscow semifinals in her pocket. In the other duels of the day, Vondrousova beat Tsurenko (double 6-3) and Halep (who will be Sakkari’s next rival) He could with Kudermetova (6-1 and 7-6 (4).