Maria Sakkari beat Coco Guaff 4-7, 7-6(5), 2-6 in the Semi-Final at Indian Wells.
Superb Maria Sakkari beat US Open champion Coco Gauff in a rain-delayed match and will play Iga Swiatek in the final at the 2024 Indian Wells Open in California. Her rise from the tennis ashes continues.
Sakkari won 6-4, 6-7, 6-2 in a crushing win that could've been even more emphatic. She went 5-2 up in the second set before letting Gauff back in. But in the end, the Greek, who has struggled with form for the past 12 months but has found new fire under coach David Witt, rallied to seal the final set. She joked afterwards that she wished the match was done a lot sooner.
"I don't want to disrespect Coco but it would've been amazing if this match was over an hour ago," Sakkari joked afterwards. "Coco is such an amazing opponent. I'm just so happy I'm in the final once again here."
But despite that late slip, she was proud of how she rallied towards victory. “I didn’t give up. You can easily lose your head when you lose that 2nd set from being match point up. Things go wrong and I was down a break. Things didn’t look right, but I just kept believing & kept fighting. I’m very happy I have a great team with me. They always encourage me. It’s amazing to have them by my side.”
Iga Swiatek and Maria Sakkari will face each other in the Indian Wells Final. Maria leads the head-to-head 3-2, but Iga won their last two matches. Iga is 19-2 this season and leads the tour in most match wins. She hasn’t dropped a set en route to the final. Maria is 10-4 this year. She didn’t have the best start to the season, but she’s gotten back to playing near her best level as this tournament has gone on.
