Maria Sakkari won a great victory against her evil demon. The number 7 in the world prevailed 2-0 against Donna Vekic and reached the semi-finals of the Leeds tournament.

There she meets the winner of the pair between Towson and Martic, with the latter being the favourite.

The match: The first set was essentially decided in the fourth and fifth games. In the first, Sakkari broke the crucial break and then withstood Vekic’s pressure to take a 4-1 lead.

In her next two service games, the 27-year-old Greek had no trouble and managed to close the set 6-3.

The second set started with a big fight. Sakkari fought back and eventually got the break, holding serve to make it 2-0 immediately afterwards.

Donna Vekic reacted immediately and took a 3-2 lead with three wins in a row. Sack then managed a new break and took the lead 4:3.

Vekic then parried a triple break point to hold her serve. Vekic then held her ground and made the break that kept her alive.

Sakkari managed a triple break point but Vekic held on and the two athletes were led to the tie break. There we had a terrible fight. The athlete from Croatia led 6-3, but the set ended in Sakkari.

Overall, the 27-year-old Greek erased 5 set points from Vekic to close the tiebreak and set 7-6 (8).