Maria Sakkari (6th WTA) had a great start to her Australian Open adventure. In the first match, she defeated Yuan Yue (117th WTA) 6:1, 6:4. In the second round, after a 2.5-hour fight, she eliminated the Russian Diana Shnaider (106th WTA) 3:6, 7:5, 6:3. The Greek was one of the favorites for the final triumph in this edition of the tournament. Her greatest success at the Australian Open was the fourth round in 2020 and 2022 – then she was knocked out with Czech Petra Kvitova (15th WTA) and American Jessica Pegula (3rd WTA). This year it will not improve or even match Melbourne’s greatest achievements. Because in the third round, Lin Zhu (87th WTA) stopped her quite unexpectedly.
Sakkari is out of the Australian Open. Lin Zhu’s greatest career achievement
The match didn’t go well for Sakkari from the start. The Greek lost the application in the first game. However, she quickly leveled the competition, breaking the Chinese woman. In the third game, there was a sensation again. Sakkari lost on her own serve and had to fight for an equalizer. It came in the tenth game. Later, the players won on their own serve and a tie-break was necessary to settle the competition. In it, Zhu was stronger (7-3).
Sakkari did not give up and gave a show of strength in the second set. She broke her rival four times and eventually won 6:1, leading to an equalizer in the meeting. The third batch was very tight. The Chinese started it better again. Sakkari was broken in the first game. In the sixth game, she led a return break, but her luck did not last long. In the ninth game, Zhu won on the opponent’s serve, then defended her own serve and eventually won 6-4 and the match 2-1.
The victory was a complete surprise for the Chinese woman. Emotions ran high after the last ball, and Zhu burst into tears. – Honestly, is this a dream? Did I really do it? – said the tennis player in a broken voice during the post-match interview. The Chinese woman thanked her team and fans for their support. Sakkari, on the other hand, packed her things very quickly and left the court.
The triumph of the Chinese woman is the greatest achievement in Grand Slam tournaments in her career. So far, her biggest success at the Australian Open was the second round (in 2020 and 2021). He has only one WTA title to his credit. She won the WTA 125 in Seoul in 2021.
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Zhu will face Victoria Azarenka in the next round.
Source: Sport
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