Greek youngster Maria Sakkari has fought for more than four hours in scorching Dubai weather to make it through to the third and final round of qualifying, with battling wins over Wang Yafan and Hsieh Su-Wei.
The 22-year-old had posted her first win of the season on Saturday against Wang – a two hour and 29 minute affair – before overcoming Hsieh on Sunday 7-5, 7-5 in one hour and 37 minutes.
Sakkari, ranked No. 60 in the world, will take on ex-US Open champion Sam Stosur on Monday looking to earn a place in the Dubai main draw.
“It’s always tough to play qualies especially in these kind of tournaments, they are so strong, half of the players could be in the main draw in other tournaments. It’s always tough but it’s always good for your confidence,” said the Athens native.
On how she got through her gruelling three-setter against Wang, she added: “Fight and believe in yourself that you can do it. It was my first win of the year so it was quite tough and important so I’m happy that I went through that yesterday and today.”
Sakkari is the only player from Greece ranked in the WTA top 180 and leads just six women from her country who have a world ranking.
On the men’s tour, Greek Next Gen star Stefanos Tsitsipas – a former junior No. 1 – is now ranked 82 in the world and together with Sakkari, they are catching the attention of many people back home.
“The sport is growing because of us and it’s really good that we can help on that. We are both happy and we hope we can grow it more,” said Sakkari, who is coached by former Australian Open champion Thomas Johansson.
“We feel proud, because Greeks are patriotic, it’s very important for us and it’s very nice that we can represent our country but on the other hand it’s quite sad that we’re just two players. Hopefully more will come.”
Sakkari spent some time during her offseason last December training in Dubai and admits the hot conditions are quite familiar to her.
“I am used to it. It feels like home, that’s what I was saying when we were flying from Doha to here ‘it’s good to be home’. It’s great, here they have the best conditions to practice, especially at that time of the year when it’s freezing in Europe. We really liked it and we will come back for sure,” she said.
Meanwhile, Tunisian Ons Jabeur fell in her second round of qualifying 6-3, 6-3 to Ukrainian Lesia Tsurenko while 2016 Dubai champion Sara Errani advanced to the final round 6-4, 6-4 over American Bernarda Pera. Errani faces Belarusian Aryna Sabalenko on Monday for a spot in the main draw. Italian Camila Giorgi sustained a thigh injury and was forced to retire after taking the opening set 6-4 off of Russian Sofya Zhuk.
