Maria Sakkari will pass Eleni Daniilidou, becoming the highest-ranked WTA greek player at number 13 after her semi-final appearance at the US Open

Daniilidou reached her best ranking at number 14 on 12th May 2003.

She’s now the highest-ranked Greek woman in WTA rankings history.

Before Sakkari, the only Greek woman to reach the Top 20 of the WTA rankings was Eleni Daniilidou, who went as high as No. 14 in 2003 and won five career WTA titles, and whose best results at Grand Slams were three fourth-round showings at Wimbledon in 2002 (falling to Jennifer Capriati), the Australian Open in 2003 (falling to Serena Williams) and the US Open in 2004 (falling to Shinobu Asagoe).

Sakkari only has one WTA title, at a WTA 250 on clay in 2019 in Rabat, Morocco, but she’s far surpassed Daniilidou at the Grand Slam stage, not only becoming the first Greek woman to reach the quarterfinals of a major, but reaching two semifinals. Her first came at Roland Garros earlier this year, where she actually had a match point against Barbora Krejcikova, and her second came just last week at the US Open.

She’s closing in fast on the Top 10, too—she’s No. 6 in the year-to-date standings.

“I think I’m the best age of my career,” she said during her run in Flushing Meadows. “I’m more mature than before. As I said many times, I think every single player has a different timing of breaking through. Now it’s probably my time at the age of 26.

“I came in late in the tour. I was not a good junior. I was not a star when I was 18 of 19 years old. I had to work and sacrifice a lot from my life. But it’s now paying off, and I’m very happy that at the age of 26, I can actually achieve these results.”

14 things about Greek tennis player born in Greece.

1. She was born in Athens, Greece to Konstantinos Sakkaris and Angelikí Kanellopoúlou, who is a former tennis player.
2. She has a brother named Yannis Sakkari and a sister named Amanda Sakkari.
3. In 2001, her parents introduced her to tennis.
4. From 2008 to 2012, she worked with an Italian coach from the Sanchez-Casal Academy in Barcelona, Spain.
5. In 2010, she started competing in International Tennis Federation (ITF) events.
6. In 2013, she moved to the Portas Academy in Barcelona to train like a tennis player.
7. She was 20 years old when she made her professional tennis debut in 2015. In the same year, she reached the first round at the US Open.
8. In 2016, she reached the first round again at the US Open and the second round at the Australian Open and Wimbledon.
9. In 2017, she reached the first round at the French Open and the third round at the Australian Open, Wimbledon and the US Open.
10. In 2018, she reached the first round at the Australian Open and Wimbledon, second round at the US Open and third round at the French Open.
11. In 2019, she reached the second round at the French Open and third round at the Australian Open, Wimbledon and the US Open.
12. In 2020, she reached the third round at the French Open and the fourth round at both the Australian Open and the US Open.
13. She was a semifinalist in the 2021 French Open.
14. She was a semifinalist in 2021 US Open.