It's nice to see tennis players supporting each other's achievements and that's exactly what Maria Sakkari did when speaking about Emma Raducanu ahead of the 2022 Nottingham Open.
Maria Sakkari is the first-seeded in the 2022 Nottingham Open draw, while the home-crowd favourite, Emma Raducanu will enter the tournament as number 2. Prior to the tournament, the experienced Greek spoke about achievements of her younger colleague, when she said:
“I don’t really know her that well, but people don’t give enough credit to her. She has been playing good,” she told the PA news agency. “It is not easy, if you exclude the US Open, she is 19. It takes time. The level at WTA is very, very high, so it is going to take time for her and every young player just to get used to the level."
“She had a three-week tournament in New York and I think now what she is doing is the right thing. It took me a lot of time because my breakthrough was later than other players. Everyone has different times to break through. For me it was two or three years until I got used to the Tour – it always takes time.”
Maria Sakkari and Emma Raducanu will be two of the biggest favourites at the 2022 Nottingham Open and they might meet in the final. They met already once before as the Greek commented on their meeting, saying: "She was very young and upcoming and she did something amazing because she came through qualies and won the entire thing."
“I don’t really remember that match because it is more than eight months ago that we played. I remember she was fearless, she was going after every ball and that is what helped her win the tournament. She was confident and she was feeling it and she was enjoying herself on court.”
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