Maria Sakkari ends four-year title drought with victory in Guadalajara

Maria Sakkari had lost six finals since winning her first Hologic WTA Tour singles title in Rabat in May of 2019. But, after a fantastic week in Guadalajara, the Greek is back on top of the world tour.

No.2 seed Sakkari ended 111th-ranked Caroline Dolehide of the United States' Cinderella run in the Guadalajara Open AKRON final on Saturday night, winning 7-5, 6-3 and capturing her second career title after a four-year drought.

"It’s amazing, I’m speechless," Sakkari said, after her win. "It’s been four-and-a-half years since I won my first title, and I just finally won my second one. All these thoughts that I’ve been having all this time were very tough to overcome, and I’m just very proud of myself that I did it this week."

In the first set, Sakkari used an error-forcing crosscourt backhand to take a break lead at 2-1, but Dolehide's massive returning led to a love break and a 4-4 tie.

At 5-5, however, Sakkari followed a drop shot with a deft lob winner to reach triple break point, and Dolehide eventually gave up the break with her second double fault of the game. Sakkari converted her first set point after Dolehide netted a backhand.

Sakkari took an early break in the second set and would not relinquish it. Sakkari slammed her third ace of the match to hold for 5-3, and she quickly broke Dolehide in the next game to clinch the trophy after 1 hour and 43 minutes of play.

Sakkari wrapped up the match with 19 winners to Dolehide's eight. The Greek converted four of 11 break points to clinch the trophy.

SportsLigue