Maria Sakkari has ended her four-year wait for a WTA trophy after beating Caroline Dolehide in straight sets to win the Guadalajara Open.
The world No.9 rallied to a 7-5, 6-3, win over the American to claim only her second WTA title and her first at a WTA 1000 event. Sakkari broke her opponent four times and won 70% of her first service points during the final. She has become only the second Greek woman in the Open Era to have won a WTA hard court event after Eleni Daniilidou.
“It’s amazing, I’m speechless,” Sakkari said afterward. “It’s been four-and-a-half years since I won my first title, and I just finally won my second one. All these thoughts that I’ve been having all this time were very tough to overcome, and I’m just very proud of myself that I did it this week.”
The 28-year-old is the first player this season to have won a WTA 1000 event without dropping a set in the entire tournament. Earlier in the week, she scored wins over Caroline Garcia, Emiliana Arango, Camila Giorgi and Storm Hunter. The last player to achieve this record was Iga Swiatek at the 2022 Miami Open.
“I feel like I haven’t really realized what I did this week, and it’s going to take a little bit of time,” she continued. “But at the same time, I just want to really enjoy the moment today and tomorrow, and just keep working hard, because I’m sure that more are going to come in the future.”
Despite her success on the Tour in recent years, Sakkari has struggled to win silverware. Her only previous triumph was at a WTA 250 event in Morroco. She made her top 10 debut in September 2021 and has been ranked as high as third in the world. During the same year, she reached the semi-finals of both the French Open and Wimbledon.
However, this year she has struggled in the Grand Slam events where she has suffered a first round defeat in three out of four played. The only exception was the Australian Open where she reached the fourth round.
“I can tell you that it was very tough all these years, especially the last two years that I’ve been a top-10 player. Everyone kept saying, Ah, she’s top 10, top 5, top 3, and she has only won one 250. Finally I just can shut their mouth in a way,” she commented.
“Obviously there’s still a long way to go. I don’t want to stop in the two titles. But I’m just happy for myself that I could overcome this and I can just prove to myself that I’m capable of achieving big things.”
Sakkari is projected to rise to sixth place in WTA the rankings on Monday.
