Maria Sakkari had a lot of issues against Leylah Fernandez, but she prevailed in the end, securing Greece's spot in the 2024 United Cup quarter-finals.
After Stefanos Tsitsipas won his singles match, Maria Sakkari was in a position to secure her country's spot in the quarter-final. She needed to beat Leylah Fernandez to do so, and that's not an easy thing to do.
She found out herself when the Canadian started to blast winners left and right. Fernandez suddenly rose at the end of last year, and she's certainly carried over the confidence to this year.
It was a match she needed to win, and she played like it. An early 2-0 lead wasn't held, but she kept pushing and would get more chances in the coming games.
At 5-4, Fernandez had several break points, which were set points, however, she failed to use all of them. As we entered the tiebreak, many assumed the Canadian to come out on top, but a furious sequence by Sakari saw her jump out to a 3-0 lead.
She then outplayed her opponent for the rest of the tiebreak to take it 7-2 overall. The second set was once again similar to the first one as Fernandez kept pushing early and got the break 3-1. She then lost four games in a row to fall behind 3-5, which is what ended the match basically.
Sakkari would then add another game to win the second set 6-3, and that was that. A golden opportunity for Fernandez went away as the Greek player cemented her country's spot in the United Cup quarter-finals.
It was a pretty good play from Sakkari, as she won both of her singles matches. If Tsitsipas wasn't injured, the country would have a pretty good chance of winning it all, but there is Poland with Iga Swiatek and Hubert Hurkacz, who are playing really well.
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