Stat of the Day: Maria Sakkari scores 25th Top 10 win of career with victory over Pegula

It was a double milestone kind of day for Maria Sakkari in Washington D.C. on Saturday, as she defeated Jessica Pegula in the semifinals of the WTA 500 event, 6-3, 4-6, 6-2.

Not only is Sakkari now through to her first final of the year, but her victory over the No. 4-ranked Pegula was the milestone 25th Top 10 win of her career. It’s tied for her fifth-best win by ranking.

SAKKARI’S BEST CAREER WINS BY RANKING:
d. No. 2 Osaka in 2021 Miami QFs
d. No. 2 Sabalenka in 2021 WTA Finals RR
d. No. 2 Jabeur in 2022 WTA Finals RR
d. No. 3 Pegula in 2022 WTA Finals RR
d. No. 4 Pegula in 2023 Washington D.C. SFs
d. No. 4 Kenin in 2021 Abu Dhabi QFs
d. No. 4 Pliskova in 2021 US Open QFs

The Greek is now through to the eighth WTA final of her career. She’s 1-6 in her first seven, winning the clay-court event in Rabat, Morocco in 2019. That was a WTA 250, so a win in the American capital tomorrow would give her the biggest title of her career.

Pegula almost snatched victory from the jaws of defeat on Saturday—Sakkari originally led by a set and a break, 6-3, 4-1, when Pegula won the next five games to take the second set.

But Sakkari re-steadied herself from the start of the third and ended up with the victory anyway, saying afterwards that she took it as a new challenge to regroup in the decider.

“Obviously I could be off the court an hour earlier, but at the end I got the win, which is what I wanted the most,” she said.

“Even though things were tricky in the second and third set, I just tried to overcome myself and take it as a new challenge.”

The No. 9-ranked Greek also had nothing but praise for Pegula.

“I’ve said it before, I have massive respect for Jess. She’s one of the nicest people on tour. We have a similar career, because we were both not great juniors, and our breakthrough was later on in our career. I respect her so much, and I really really like her, her and her team, great coach, her husband is also so nice.

"They’re amazing people.”