Start with the right and qualification for Sakkari who defeated Paritha Dias

Maria Sakkari returned to the WTA Tour with a positive result, defeating Nuria Parithas Diath in her debut at the Indoor 250 tournament in Austria.

The 27-year-old Greek and No. 1 on this week’s board in Leeds impressed, beating the Spaniard and world No. 76 6-1, 7-6(6).

In the tournament’s “16” leaderboard, she meets lucky loser Russian and No. 84 female tennis player in the world Varvara Gratseva, who in turn beat compatriot Ana Blinkova 7-5, 7-5.

Despite struggling to ‘finish’ the match in straight sets, receiving a break on serve to win when the score was 6-1, 6-5, Maria kept her composure in the ensuing tie-break. back from a mini-break (0-2) to finish the job.

This was Sakkari’s 6th win of 2023 and 1st after her elimination in the 3rd round of the Australian Open at the hands of China’s Lin Zhu.

The world No. 7 saw her first serve work brilliantly (33/43 points won) and found a way to limit her opponent’s ability to claim the first of the five wins she needs to clinch the WTA trophy #2 of her career.

Sakkari’s only flaw on her debut with Upper Austria Ladies Linz was her weak second serve, which she didn’t have on a good day. Just 11/23 points gained behind.

Maria ended the match with 3/4 break point opportunities, allowing her opponent to only get one break in the match (1/3 chances), albeit in particularly bad timing.

Source: Tennis24.gr