Maria Sakkari achieved a tough victory against the mighty Rebeka Masarova in three sets (3-6, 6-3, 6-3) in her Mutua Madrid Open third round duel. The Greek will face Paula Badosa in the quarterfinals.
tournament draw
tournament results
Time to end another day in Madrid in the presence of the locals Rebekah Masarovaahead of the ninth seed Maria Sakkari. The Spaniard was coming off two very good performances, beating compatriot Cristina Bucsa on her debut and then a top seed like Donna Vekic, while the Greek had made a solid debut, beating the Dutch on the fast track Arantxa Rus.
Sakkar is still in Madrid
A very interesting start to the match with numerous long points and a trend towards absolute parity without either finding stability in their service games. Break points everywhere, but the first break wasn’t coming until the sixth set when Masarova went up 4-2. Doubts continued for the Hellenes, who suffered from good returns from the Spanish. Rebeka didn’t hesitate and sealed the first round 6-3. Another steady start was the first break for Sakkar, who was now at the finish line for the first time. Masarova would recover from the break to leave it 3-4, adding to the illusion of the people who supported her to close out the match now. However, The Greek broke again and then made it another 6-3 in his favour.
It was all uphill for the Spaniard, who surrendered serve again at the start of the defining set. The trend was going to mark the clear dominance of Sakkar, who was much firmer than in the first set and now signed another break to take a 4-1 lead. Masarova did not give up, and forcing some errors from her rival, she got one break back. In the end, Sakkari decided the victory in the third 6-3.
