Maria Sakkari was born on July 25, 1995, in Athens, Greece, to mother Angelikí Kanellopoúlou and father Konstantinos Sakkaris. With her mother being a former Top 50 player on the WTA Tour, Sakkari's life path always seemed to be destined.
The Greek started playing tennis at the age of six, and by 18, she moved to Barcelona to practice there. Unlike many other successful tennis players, Sakkari didn't have a really successful junior career.
She had to fight her way up, and that fight started at the 2015 US Open, where she played her first main draw match on the WTA Tour, which was already at the Grand Slam stage, even though she lost in the opening round to Qiang Wang.
The following years were marked by progress from the Greek player, who has never worsened her year-end ranking position until 2023. In 2015, she finished as world no. 188 and moved to no. 89 in 2016, then to no. 52 in 2017 and then to no. 41 in 2018.
In 2019, she reached the semifinals of the Italian Open and the quarterfinals of the Cincinnati Masters, finishing the year as world no. 23, and improved even further by one more place in 2020, finishing as world no. 22.
In 2021, a major breakthrough awaited Sakkari. She played in the semifinals at the Roland Garros and the US Open, and she also reached the same stage at the Miami Open and the subsequent WTA Finals, for which she qualified, to finish the year as world no. 6.
Next year was marked by similar success for the Greek, even though this time, it wasn't on the Grand Slam stage. She played in the Qatar Open semifinals, the Indian Wells final, and also the Guadalajara Open final, finishing off the season once again with a semifinal appearance at the WTA Finals and world no. 6 rank.
