Guadalajara Open: Maria Sakkari Clinch first WTA 1000 title with victory over Caroline Dolehide

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

The Greek who is on a six-game losing streak in WTA finals since winning her first Hologic WTA Tour singles title at Rabat in May of 2019 showed class to lift the title in Mexico.

“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.

“I feel like I haven’t really realized what I did this week, and it’s going to take a little bit of time. But at the same time, I just want to really enjoy the moment today and tomorrow, and just keep working hard, because I’m sure that more are going to come in the future.”

The highest-ranked Greek female tennis player in history, former World No.3 Sakkari becomes the first from her country to hoist a WTA 1000 trophy, going one step further than her runner-up finish to Jessica Pegula in Guadalajara last year.

With her fifth straight-sets win of the week, Sakkari is the first player this season to win a WTA 1000 event in 2023 without dropping a set. She is the first to win a WTA 1000 hard-court title without the loss of a set since Iga Swiatek did so at Miami in March of 2022.