Maria Sakkari defeated top seed Aryna Sabalenka to win her final round-robin match in Group Chichen Itza and book a spot in the semifinals of the Akron WTA Finals Guadalajara.
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The fourth-seeded Sakkari fought for almost three hours to earn a 7-6(1) 6-7(6) 6-3 victory over Sabalenka, who had dropped only one set across their previous four meetings.
Even though Sabalenka was serving for the first set at 5-3, Sakkari managed to force a tiebreak. Helped by three aces and two Sabalenka’s double faults in the tiebreak, Sakkari dominated the end of the opening set.