Maria Sakkari says she is relieved to win her opening match at the Australian Open after a nightmare run at the Grand Slams last year.
The Greek eight seed dropped only five games during her 6-4, 6-1, win over Japan’s Nao Hibino who is currently ranked 84 places lower than her. Sakkari is making her ninth appearance at Melbourne Park and is now 23-9 in first round matches played at major events. In her latest clash, she hit three times more winners than her opponent (18-6) and won 78% of her first service points.
Sakkari’s victory ends her run of three consecutive first round losses at Grand Slam tournaments. A frustrating streak for a player who reached the semi-finals of both the French Open and the US Open in 2022.
“(I’m feeling) super good because after losing three first rounds in the last three Grand Slams, that was very important for me. I was quite nervous before going into the match, but now I feel relieved,” Sakkari said after beating Hibino.
“Overall, despite the nerves and the anxiety and the stress, I think that I was able to – especially in that second set – play a little bit of the tennis that I’ve been playing the last couple of months.
“I’m just feeling very good with my game because I really did some changes. I really worked hard. Believe it or not, I put more hours than usual. I had a very good pre-season. I think things will start clicking sometime soon.”
Despite her straight-sets victory, Sakkari said her level of play wasn’t as good as what she showed earlier this month at the United Cup. In the team event, she beat Angelique Kerber, Daniela Seguel and Leylah Fernandez.
As for the reason before her surge in form, she believes one certain adjustment has made a big impact.
“I changed my racket. It’s a completely new frame. After 10 years using the same racket, that was a big change for me,” she explained.
“I changed a little bit of my forehand, worked a lot on that because I felt like I had a very good forehand, but it could be a lot better. So now I’m feeling that it’s my best shot, very powerful, and for sure the racket has helped.”
Sakkaei will next play Elina Avanesyan in the second round.
Anisimova upsets 13th seed
Embed from Getty ImagesElsewhere, Amanda Anisimova won her first major match since returning to the Tour following a break for mental health reasons. The American beat Liudmila Samsonova 6-3, 6-4, who is the first seeded player to exit the women’s draw in this year’s tournament. The victory is her first main draw win at a major since the 2022 Wimbledon Championships.
“The most important thing is that I feel a lot more refreshed,” said Anisimova.
“I’m enjoying practising. I’m enjoying every second that I’m out there. Even when I was down today, I was still just enjoying the challenge.
“I’m just happy with how I feel coming back. I feel like I was very burned out while I was playing, and that really wasn’t a nice feeling. Being able to just reset is really nice.”
During her hiatus, the American didn’t touch a racket for four months. Although returning to the court was easier than some would have thought.
“Everything was there. It was kind of like I never stopped playing actually,” she explained.
“It was just the fitness part because I’m a human, so that’s obviously going to go away, and you have to build that up.
“But my game and my shots, I was actually playing great from what I thought the first week with my coach. So that was really nice just going back out there and feeling like I never stopped.”
Anisimova is making her fifth appearance at the Australian Open.
