Maria Sakkari suffered another early exit at a major at the 2024 Roland Garros, and she was left speechless, unsure of what to say.
Unfortunately, the Greek player has built a reputation for failing in big moments. She hasn't played in too many finals, even though she's one of the best players in the world.
She often comes close but then suffers a shocking loss to a player she was expected to beat, and it happened so many times that it has really started hindering her progress on the WTA Tour.
Sakkari suffered many shocking losses early on in events, especially at majors. Semi-finalist from 2021 lost at the French Open in the second round in 2022, and in the first round last year, and this year was no different.
It's shocking because she once nearly made the final and is generally known as a really strong clay player. After the match, Sakkari spoke with SDNA, admitting that she doesn't know what to say about this loss.
"It’s the first time I don’t know what to say…I’ve been very well these days. It was very sudden for me too, I started feeling intense anxiety before the match. I would really like to give the right answers, but all I have to say is that I have been very well these days."
"No matter what set I played, no matter what practice I did, everyone could see that I was fine. It’s definitely psychological, purely. It’s nothing else."
She further admitted that she felt quite anxious during the match, which obviously impacted her play. She even referred to a type of panic, which isn't good but isn't that strange either, as we saw several players deal with that including Sakkari herself.
"I won the first set and I kept getting nervous. My pulse was very high throughout the match, especially until the middle of the third setI was feeling a panic, it’s not like I won the first set and relaxed. Maybe if I had broken the first game of the second set things would have been different."
"But what can we say now?’ It’s purely psychological, I’m not hiding. I will not look for excuses. I put too much pressure on myself, not to lose another game in the first or second round of a Grand Slam."
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