Ranked No. 8 by the WTA, Maria Sakkari is a professional Greek Tennis player who has broken several rankings and records at a very young age. This 28-year-old player received her career-high ranking of world No. 3 on March 21, 2022, and also became the highest-ranked Greek tennis player in history.
Not only this but Maria has also been awarded two WTA singles titles, including the WTA 1000 title at the Guadalajara Open in 2023. In 2021, she qualified for the semifinals at the French Open and US Open, making her the first Greek woman tennis player to represent her country in a Grand Slam semi-final.
You must have also seen her endorse some highly reputed international brands like Adidas, Wilson, Rolex, Green Cola, and Dior.
In this article, we’ll take you through everything you need to know about Maria Sakkari’s personal life, career, relationships, achievements, and more.
Personal Life
Maria Sakkari was born in Athens, Greece on 25 July 1995. Her mother Angeliki Kanellopoulou and grandfather are professional tennis players and her father Konstantinos Sakkaris is a businessman. Her parents introduced her to the world of tennis when she was only six years old, and since then she has never looked back. After years of training and practice, she moved to Barcelona, Spain at the age of 18 and started training for national-level matches.
Her father was very supportive of her career and always drove her to practice sessions. Until 2015, she was coached by American Tom Hill, one of the youngest coaches in the WTA. Tom Hill has also coached the former Australian Open finalist Danielle Collins.
Maria has two siblings Yannis Sakkari and Amanda Sakkari. She is in a public relationship with Konstantinos Mitsotakis, her current boyfriend.
Did you know? Maria Sakkari’s net worth is nearly $100,000 – $1M (USD). She has won more than $9.67 million in her career as prize money.
28 years old, Maria weighs 62kgs and stands 5 feet 8 inches tall (1.73m). One of her hobbies apart from Tennis is swimming. Her Tennies heroes are Serena Williams, Rafael Nadal, and Roger Federer.
Dating Life
Maria and her boyfriend Konstantinos Mitsotakis have been in a public relationship for over 2 years now. Konstantinos is Greece’s Prime Minister’s son. She has often publicly commented on her relationship saying that her boyfriend is a very easygoing man and loves simplicity.
Mitsotakis really supports Maria with her career and he in fact is also very good at the sport. The couple also likes to play tennis together sometimes.
Career
Early Years and Debuts
Maria made her Tennis debut on the ITF Circuit in 2010 at $10k ITF/Mytilini‐GRE and played her first WTA tournament in 2012 which happened in Palermo, however, she lost the second round. She tried at the WTA level but failed to qualify until 2015, and made her grand slam debut at the US Open.
In 2016, she failed in qualifying at Brisbane and Hobart and then got her first Grand Slam main draw win beating Wang. This made her the first Greek woman to win a main draw match at a Slam since Daniilidou d. Karolina Pliskova at 2013 Australian Open. The same year saw her reach the first WTA quarterfinal of her career in Istanbul after qualifying to enter the main draw (l. Kovinic). She earned 2r at Wimbledon and collected a single main draw win in Tashkent after the championship was over. She also played the main draw again at the 2016 Gstaad, New Haven (as a qualifier), Tokyo [Japan Open], Seoul, and Hong Kong.
2017-18: The Breakthrough
Let’s talk about Maria’s big break!
She went to the third round at three of the four majors, at the Australian Open, Wimbledon, and US Open. She made her first WTA semifinal in Wuhan, China, which was her first victory over a top-25 opponent. This was a historic victory for a Greek tennis player since August 2005, ever since Eleni Daniilidou defeated the player at number four Svetlana Kuznetsova in Los Angeles.
Maria Sakkari completed the season at No.51, becoming the third highest-ranked Greek female player of all time, after her mother Angeliki Kanellopoulou (former number 43).
2019-20: First WTA title and Big Wins
After several attempts to win the WTA title, Maria finally made it on May 4, 2019, at the Grand Prix SAR La Princesse Lalla Meryem, Rabat. She did not lose any sets against Olga Danilovic, Isabella Sinikova, and defending champions Elise Mertens and Alison Van Uytvanck. In the final round, she bagged better scores than Johanna Konta and won by 2-6, 6-4, 6-1.
Maria landed in the fourth round for the first time in a round of the Grand Slam at the Australian Open in 2020, and seamlessly defeated Margarita Gasparjan, Nao Hibino, and Madison Keys in order, and was defeated by Petra Kvitova in a comeback. She got selected in the round of 16 the same year at the US Open.
2021: Making the top-10 debut
This was the year when Maria reached her third WTA final, two Grand Slam semifinals, and WTA Finals semifinal, and entered the Top 10. Wow, what a breakthrough!
She got good scores at the Roland Garros and won against efficient international players like Katarina Zavac’ka, Jasmine Paolini, and the 14th seed Elise Mertens. She then went to the semifinal match and defeated the champion Iga Swiatek, who had won the last 22 sets played in Paris. This was a huge confidence boost for Maria, indeed!
At the US Open, she defeated Marta Kostjuk, Katerina Siniakova, and Petra Kvitova. In the round of 16, she played against the 2019 champion Bianca Andreescu and won the match after 3 and a half hours of play with a score of 6-7, 7-6, 6-3, reaching her first quarterfinal in New York.
By winning against Karolína Plískova she became the first Greek tennis player to enter the semifinals of the US tournament which was another record-breaking moment for Maria.
With these results Sakkari improved her international rankings, securing 13th place in the world.
2022: Consistent Growth and More Wins
Maria Sakkari secured the position of top-3 of the WTA ranking but lost 4 finals in 2022- St. Petersburg, Indian Wells, Parma, and Guadalajara, respectively against Kontavit, Sherif, Swiatek, and Pegula.
2023: Three Major first rounds losses
She started the year 2023 at the Australia Open and defeated Yuan (6-1 6-4) while she struggled in the second round with Russia’s Snaider (3-6 7-5 6-3). In the third round, lost the match against Chinese player Lin Zhu, who defeated her in three sets. At the Qatar Open, she won over Zheng (6-2 3-6 6-3), Aleksandrova (6-3 6-2) and the top-5 Garcia (6-2 6 (5) -7 7-6 ( 5)). In the second semifinal of the year, Sakkari lost to Jessica Pegula in three sets.
