Stefanos Tsitsipas and Maria Sakkari beat Borna Gojo and Petra Martic 7-6 (8-6) 6-4 in the mixed doubles match in the Perth City Finals to seal Greece a spot in the semifinals at the United Cup.
The four singles matches were split at 2-2 before Tsitsipas and Sakkari clinched a 3-2 win in the doubles match.
Tsitsipas and Sakkari won 88% of their first serve points and did not face any break points. The Greek pair have won third mixed doubles win this week in Perth.
“I think our first mixed doubles was on this court. Our games are just clicking. We know each other really well and we have great chemistry on the court and I think that’s the key. The more we develop as players, that’s also something that adds up and makes us play better on the mixed doubles for sure”, said Sakkari.
Greece set up a semifinal against Italy, on Friday and Saturday in Sydney. Poland will take on the USA in the semifinal.
Earlier today Donna Vekic eased past Greece’s Despina Papamichail 6-0 6-2 in just 64 minutes to give Croatia a 1-0 lead.
Tsitsipas rallied from 1-4 down in the third set to beat Borna Coric 6-0 6-7 (4-7) 7-5 drawing level to 1-1. Tsitsipas earned Greece a crucial win. Tsitsipas broke three times to take a bagel win in the first set. Coric recovered by saving two match points at 5-6 in the second set.
Coric broke serve in the fourth game and held serve to build up a 4-1 lead. Tsitsipas broke twice in the seventh and eleventh games and sealed the hard-fought win on his fourth match point.
Tsitsipas leads 3-2 lead in his five head-to-head matches against Coric, but the Croatian player beat his Greek opponent in both his clashes against his Greek opponent in the Cincinnati final and in the Vienna round of 16.
“Whenever I play against Gojo, it’s definitely not eassy, but I keep reminding myself that it doesn’t better than this and his level of tennis is going to improve. It’s important to get matches against opponents like this to raise the bar high. They require you to find to win, even when you are not feeling your best”, said Tsitsipas.
Two-time Grand Slam semifinalist Sakkari beat Martic 6-3 6-3 in the match of the number 1 players to give Greece a 2-1 lead. Sakkari won 73% of her first serve points. The Greek player dropped her serve once and faced break points in two games.
Sakkari earned the break after a series of errors from Martic to open up a 5-3 lead. The Greek player started the second set with an early break. Martic fended off a double break point in the third game. Sakkari rallied from 0-30 down to hold serve in the fourth game. Sakkari saved two break points to hold serve in the seventh game before breaking serve in the ninth game at deuce to close out the second set 6-3.
Borna Gojo defeated Stefanos Sakellaridis 6-4 6-2 to level the tie to 2-2 forcing a mixed doubles match. Gojo earned an immediate break to take an early lead. The Croatian player won 100% of his first serve points and faced only a break point late in the second set. Gojo broke for the second time in a five-deuce third game of the second set and sealed the match point with a smash.
