Maria Sakkari was unable to retain her winning streak against the ever improving Iga Swiatek in Sunday’s final losing 6-4, 6-1.
The 26-year-old Greek will still move up the rankings from No. 6 to world to No. 3, achieving her highest ranking ever by a female player from Greece, now matching Stefanos Tsitsipas who also climbed to wprld number three.
Sakkari had beaten Swiatek three of the four times they had played before Sunday, but Swiatek was in control most of the match while Sakkari kept making unforced errors. It was also the first time all tournament Sakkari had lost the first set.
“The girl who is going to be taking more risk, she’s going to miss a little bit more,” Swiatek told wtatennis.com.
“For sure, you want to be aggressive, not like push the ball. But I also wanted to adjust to what Maria was doing, and I think I did that pretty well in the second set. I wasn’t taking too much risk.”
Sakkari on the other hand, received pressure on her serve, struggling to decode Swiatek’s new, aggressive style of performance, playing against the wind.
“Clearly it was windy. We were both struggling with our serves in the beginning of the match,” Sakkari said. “Wind is never an excuse because wind is for both of us. That was irrelevant for my performance.”
While on the podium, accepting the trophy, Swiatek told Sakkari that “We already started a pretty cool rivalry and I’m sure it’s going to continue for the next 10 years, including again in finals”.
When asked how she felt about losing to the Pole, Sakkari chose to focus on getting Greece in the top three.
“I’m disappointed. I’m not going to hide that. I’m very disappointed I did not win today. But there are a lot of positive things that I’ll take with me,” she said. “When I think about (being No. 3 in the world), I can’t believe there’s only two girls above me right now. I just cannot believe it right now. Whoever followed my steps last couple of years, they know what that means to me.”