After 2 matches of the Teotihuacan group at WTA Finals 2021 on Wednesday, the Chichen Itza group also entered the competition on Thursday afternoon (local time). According to the new matches that ended this morning (Vietnam time), a surprise happened.
Maria Sakkari of Greece has started her 2021 WTA Finals campaign excellently, defeating Iga Swiatek of Poland with a score of 6-2, 6-4. The No. 4 seed has made history for her country this season, becoming the first female tennis player from Greece to qualify for the WTA Finals in singles or doubles. And in her debut match, she pushed her historical record further with a victory over the No. 5 Swiatek seed after 86 minutes, taking the lead in the group stage of the Chichen Ita round.
This year's WTA Finals has 6 players participating for the first time and Sakkari and Swiatek are 2 of them. Sakkari's victory affirmed her superiority over her opponent in the competition that is increasingly attracting their attention.
This season, they met for the first time at Roland Garros, where Sakkari eliminated defending champion Swiatek to reach the semi-finals of her first Grand Slam. Another win for Sakkari in the Ostrava semi-finals came this fall, and she is currently leading the Polish tennis player 3-0 (game score 6-0).
Thanks to this win, Sakkari improved to 8 wins and 4 losses to opponents in the Top 10 this year in events in the Tour system. Those 8 victories are helping her lead the WTA in the 2021 season. This year, the Greek tennis player had a 10-13 record against his opponent in the Top 10.
After this match, Sakkari and Swiatek both had 2 more matches in the Itza Cup group, against Paula Badosa and the No. 1 seed Aryna Sabalenka.
Their task will be very difficult because in fact, Badosa, also in their debut match at a major event at the end of this season, defeated Sabalenka 6-4, 6-0 to have 10 consecutive wins.
This is the second confrontation of the year between Badosa and the world No. 2 tennis player. The Spaniard has real potential after beating Sabalenka 5-7, 6-2, 7-6 (4) at the Western & Southern Open.
But unlike when it took them 2 hours and 20 minutes to win in Cincinnati, this time Badosa quickly found solutions to win their fourth consecutive games against opponents in the Top 5 this season.
After falling 2-4 behind in the first set, Badosa took advantage of their physical and speedy advantage to lure Sabalenka into long-range kicks. As a result, Badosa won 4 consecutive games to come back to win the 1-64 set.
Set 2 was even more impressive, not only winning points in the ball-scoring games, the 23-year-old tennis player also won 3 consecutive breaks to close set 2 with a difference of 6-0.
