Maria Sakkari comeback gains momentum at “home tournament” DC Open

WASHINGTON, DC—The Mubadala Citi DC Open is as close to a home tournament as any for Maria Sakkari. A former world No. 3, Sakkari was born in Athens, Greece but has made a home base out of the United States capital in the last two years with boyfriend and Georgetown University alum Konstantinos Mitsotakis.

“I have never stayed home for a tournament,” Sakkari said after reaching the quarterfinals Wednesday night. “I'm just excited that I can be ‘home’ and just feel how, because I don't have a tournament at home in Greece, to just experience the whole atmosphere around playing at your home tournament. Well, not home tournament, but, adopted home.”

The 2023 DC Open finalist channeled those good vibes into her one of her biggest wins of the season, scoring a second Top 20 victory by shocking world No. 11 seed Emma Navarro, 7-5, 7-6 (1).

“This was a step forward,” she told Tennis Channel after taking out the tournament’s No. 2 seed. “I just raised my level, I was solid. The first set was a little tricky but I think that second set showed a lot of strength.”

Physical strength has rarely in question when it comes to Sakkari, perhaps the fittest woman on the Hologic WTA tour. But the two-time Grand Slam semifinalist had to rebuild her body after a shoulder injury shut down her 2024 season. After almost three years interrupted years inside the Top 10, she arrived in D.C. ranked No. 90 and in danger of missing out on major main draws.

“I have worked hard the last, not 12 months but, like, 9 months, let's say, 8 months after coming back from my injury at this time last year,” Sakkari said.

“I knew it was going to start picking up at some point, it's been good, it hasn't been where I want it to be, but it's a good start. I just feel like, you know, it was going to happen sooner or later. I'm just so happy that I get to play good tennis here in D.C., because I love this swing. I feel like it's very good for my game.”

Having made it through the tour’s trickiest part of the calendar—switching from clay to grass, and back to hard courts—Sakkari sees a clear runway to the end of the season with only hard courts in front of her.

“You know, hard court is my best surface, for sure,” she told me. “I love clay, as well, but I'll take hard court any day. I'm just so excited, because I had a week off. It's really helped me. I feel like recharged and ready to go for, you know, full calendar now hopefully.”

A quarterfinal result could see Sakkari jump almost 20 spots up in the rankings, but her biggest goal was to make it to Friday so she could celebrate her 30th birthday with her D.C. family, which includes the Georgetown University tennis team.

“The head coach of Georgetown tennis was here,” remarked Sakkari, who will next face Emma Raducanu—after Raducanu won a battle of former US Open champions over Naomi Osaka—in the last eight. “The head of racquet sports at Georgetown was also here, because they let me use their facilities, which I'm very grateful.

“I have a couple of friends from Greece that live here, and my boyfriend has introduced me to his friends. I'm for sure not up there with how many tickets Frances asks for, but I probably have close to 10 tickets. That's not bad, right?”