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GreekReporter.comGreek NewsMaria Sakkari's Olympic Dreams Crushed as Svitolina Takes Match

Maria Sakkari’s Olympic Dreams Crushed as Svitolina Takes Match

Sakkari
Maria Sakkari lost to Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina 1-2. Credit: Maria Sakkari / Facebook

In her second match in the Olympic tournament at Tokyo, Maria Sakkari lost to Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina on Tuesday.

The Greek tennis player will not be able to pursue her dream of fighting for an Olympic medal — this time around, anyway.

Sakkari won the first set 7-5 in a confrontation that was difficult for both players. However, she proved to be more determined and managed to get the set.

Unfortunately, the second set proved to be more of a problem for Sakkari. A series of misfortunes and mistakes, along with the much better performance of the Ukrainian player, allowed the set to fall to Svitolina with a score of 3-6.

A similar pattern was followed in the third and last set, where the Greek champion lost 4-6.

The match then ended in Svitolina’s favor, 1-2.

Sakkari Beat Anett Kontaveit in First Tokyo Olympics Match

In her first match for the Olympic tournament, Sakkari had managed to beat Estonia’s Anett Kontaveit after a comfortable win, in straight sets on Saturday.

Sakkari won the first set by 7-5 and the second by 6-2, gaining an easy 2-0 win in approximately 92 minutes of action.

However, the beginning of the match was not a piece of cake for the Greek player, who is currently No. 19 in the world.

She found herself losing 2-5, with a set victory for the Estonian player looking almost certain.

However, the Spartan woman showed her true self and managed to overturn the bad result, turning the 2-5 in to 7-5 in a matter of minutes.

During the second set of the match, Sakkari was in a better position and ended up winning with an impressive score of 6-2.

Tsitsipas and Sakkari Greece’s hope for Tokyo medals

The Greek tennis duo do not only play in their respective singles categories; they will also pair together for the mixed doubles tournament during the Olympic Games of Tokyo in Japan.

However, following Tuesday’s defeat for Sakkari, it’s only Tsitsipas the one who is still battling it out in Tokyo in the singles.

Of course, Sakkari’s Japanese journey hasn’t finished yet as her duo matches with Tsitsipas will take place later in the tournament.

Tennis has never enjoyed much popularity in Greece, which is why Tsitsipas has spoken numerous times of his goal to make tennis popular in Greece. One way to do that, beyond being a successful all-around tennis player, is to win a medal for his country at the Olympics.

Tsitsipas was a finalist at the Roland Garros Grand Slam tournament earlier this Summer.

Although the Greek champion built a big lead and appeared on his way to an upset victory, Novak Djokovic mounted an improbable comeback to win his 19th major title by a score of 6-7 (6), 2-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-4.

Tsitsipas was the youngest men’s finalist at Roland Garros since Rafael Nadal.

The Spanish tennis legend had won the title in 2008.

Tsitsipas had high hopes to become the first Greek to win a Grand Slam title; however, his fortune was not on his side this time.

“Despite my loss today, I have faith in my game,” Tsitsipas said. “I very much believe I can get to that point very soon. I was close today.”

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