An emotional Maria Sakkari overcame Paula Badosa 6-2 4-6 6-1 to reach the Indian Wells final where she faces Iga Swiatek.
The Greek overcame her semi-final hoodoo as she defeated the defending champion in three sets to reach the final at Indian Wells.
Sakkari was 0-4 in semi-finals at WTA1000 level heading into Friday night’s clash but managed to dominate the first and deciding sets to reach her first WTA1000 final.
After the match Sakkari said in her on-court interview that she wasn’t aware of the stat and had belief she could reach the final, “I’ll be deadly honest that I never, ever thought about it,” she was quoted by the WTA website as saying.
“I have a lot of people around me telling me about the semifinals and that I was not able to get over this hurdle. But I never, ever thought about it because I was always very confident and had a lot of belief that I would just get over it soon and it clicked, I guess. I work my entire life to get to this, to the late stages of the tournaments. It means a lot to me.”
Sakkari had to overcome an early break of serve in the opening set as she broke the Spaniard on three occasions to claim the opening set.
Badosa broke twice in the second set to level up the match at one set all with confident and efficient serving.
However it was the world number six who dominated the final set as she claimed a landmark career victory and admitted that she was concerned about the match heading into this encounter, “I was very concerned before the match because Paula is playing differently than the other girls,” Sakkari claimed.
“She has a very heavy game. She obviously loves this tournament because she won it six months ago. I had full faith and I believed in myself every single moment.”
Sakkari will now face Iga Swiatek on Sunday in the final after the Pole overcame Simona Halep 7-6(6) 6-4.
After the match Sakkari said that Swiatek is a completely different opponent to a year ago, “She’s not the Iga that was a year ago,” she said.
“She has been playing very, very aggressive and I was actually very surprised with that change when I played her in Doha. I really respect her and I really like her because she’s a lovely girl and she’s very nice and whatever she has achieved she really deserves it. But on the other hand, I just have full faith and a lot of confidence in my game and in myself right now.”
The winner of Sunday’s clash will replace Barbora Krejcikova as the new world number two.
