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Maria Sakkari has seen your memes about her semifinal record

While the Greek star has maintained a sense of humor about her habit of losing in penultimate rounds, Sakkari looks to have the last laugh at the Mubadala Citi DC Open, where she reached the final on Saturday.

ByDavid Kane

Published Aug 05, 2023

WATCH: Sakkari snapped a seven-semifinal losing streak on Saturday against Jessica Pegula.

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Maria Sakkari had lost her last seven semifinals coming into the Mubadala Citi DC Open, a record she is as aware of as you are.

"I really tried to block that semifinal thing that has been going on and on for so long and in every different platform,” she admitted on Saturday after snapping the streak with a 25th career Top 10 win over Jesscia Pegula. “I just don't really care anymore. They have made YouTube videos of my losing semifinals. I'm, like, Whatever. People are just so dumb.”

Sakkari has tried to take what has gone from confusion to concern to derision in stride, jokingly calling out a fan who mocked her record on Twitter earlier this year:

Still, her frequent and high-profile defeats have clearly gotten to the Greek if her words in press are any indication: in addition to her seven straight semifinal defeats, she lost two Grand Slam semifinals in 2021. Though both times were to eventual champions Barbora Krejcikova and Emma Raducanu, Sakkari was the higher-ranked player in both occasions.

“I think if you were to ask a lot of players on the tour if they would take my semifinal record, they would say yes, because I'm not losing first round. I'm losing in semifinal. So, at the same time, it's nothing bad about it. But obviously I had it in my mind that I want to overcome that for this year.”

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Sakkari ultimately snapped the streak in some style, navigating a second-set hiccup to defeat the top-seeded Pegula in front of an American crowd. But while her semifinal record could use cleaning up, her final record is in similar shape with just one win against six runner-up finishes.

“It's something that I'm happy about that it happened this week,” she said of her victory, “But I'm not done yet. That's how I feel."

Sakkari will aim to win her first title since the 2019 Grand Prix de SAR La Princesse Lalla Meryem on Sunday against Pegula’s doubles partner Coco Gauff, who dethroned defending champ Liudmila Samsonova in straight sets in the second semifinal.