Maria Sakkari came back from a set and a break against Ons Jabeur to reach her second semifinal of the season at the J&T Banka Ostrava Open.
OSTRAVA, Czech Republic - An all-unseeded quarterfinal at the J&T Banka Ostrava Open found Maria Sakkari coming from a set and a break down to deny Ons Jabeur a breakthrough beyond this stage, triumphing 3-6, 6-3, 6-1 to reach her second semifinal of the season in one hour and 38 minutes.
The Greek player, who also made the last four indoors in St. Petersburg in February, trailed by a set and 0-2 in the face of some sparkling form from Jabeur - but a near-perfect service game was the trigger for a brilliant turnaround in which Sakkari won 12 of the last 14 games, committing just six unforced errors over the last two sets.
"I think that Ons, she came up with some tricky shots in the first set - I couldn't really find a way to make her life tougher," mused Sakkari afterwards. "But just the fact that I know I can stay on court for a long time gives me a lot of help and hope, so I just said, stay with her, stay with her, and finally I got that break I was looking for - and things got better for me after that."
First into the semifinals! 🙌@mariasakkari defeats Jabeur, 3-6, 6-3, 6-1!#jtbankaostravaopen pic.twitter.com/EWoJvFFElK
— wta (@WTA) October 23, 2020
Next up for Sakkari will be former World No.1 Victoria Azarenka - a legend of the game whom she will meet for the first time. "Vika is a great champion, she has achieved unbelievable things in tennis. It's going to be a very tough match for me, but I'm really looking forward to it," she said.
