Maria Sakkari becomes first Greek woman to qualify for WTA Finals
Oct 22, 2021
Florida [USA], October 22 : The WTA announced Thursday that World No.7 Maria Sakkari has qualified for the 2021 WTA Finals Guadalajara, becoming the fifth singles player to secure her place at the crown-jewel event.
Sakkari joins Ashleigh Barty, Aryna Sabalenka, Barbora Krejcikova and Karolina Pliskova in the singles field, leaving three places remaining. In addition, five of the eight doubles teams have confirmed their spots in Guadalajara, including Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova, Shuko Aoyama and Ena Shibahara, Hsieh Su-Wei and Elise Mertens, Nicole Melichar-Sanchez and Demi Schuurs, and Samantha Stosur and Zhang Shuai.
Sakkari made history by becoming the first Greek woman to qualify for the year-end finale. This will be Sakkari's debut appearance at the WTA Finals. She ensured qualification courtesy of her win over Anna Kalinskaya on Thursday at the VTB Kremlin Cup in Moscow.
Sakkari made her Grand Slam breakthrough this season by reaching the final four at both Roland Garros and US Open, where she defeated three Top 20 ranked opponents at both events.
