Sakkari upsets No. 6 Paolini to reach Round of 16 in Madrid; Pegula falls
MADRID -- Maria Sakkari upset No. 6 seed Jasmine Paolini 6-2, 6-1 at the Mutua Madrid Open to advance to the Round of 16.
Paolini was one of two Top 10 top seeds to fall Sunday to an unseeded player, as No. 3 Jessica Pegula later lost 6-3, 6-2 to Moyuka Uchijima. It was the first career Top 10 win for the Japanese player after going 0-6 -- and her first against a Top 25 player, ending a 0-for-9 streak.
Sakkari, too, ended a string of futility against Top 10 players (0-8), going back to last year’s BNP Paribas Open, and leveled her record against those elite players on clay to 6-6.
“I was clear on what I had to do on the court,” Sakkari said afterward. “Just went out and executed it perfectly. I didn’t give her any room to breathe. That was my goal -- that is the goal against the very good players.
“I think it was pretty good, I have to say.”
In what has been a difficult season for the former Top 10 player, by ranking it was Sakkari’s best victory of the year. This is her first Round of 16 at a WTA 1000 since last year’s Internazionali BNL d'Italia in Rome.
“It feels pretty good because it’s been a while since I had, let’s call it a statement win for myself,” Sakkari said. “It wasn’t easy all this time. But at the same time, I knew that I had to trust, as we say, the process. Trusting that it’s going to come. It’s a good step forward and I want to stay humble with my expectations.
“I feel like the pieces are coming together. Still a long way to go, though."
Sakkari is back working with coach Tom Hill after his stint of nearly a year with Peyton Stearns.
“We’re two people with the same ambitions, the same goal,” Sakkari said. “We believe in each other. Just feels very comfortable and he knows my game like no one else. He just came in without drastically changing my game just put the pieces back together and it’s working quite well so far.”
Sakkari has now won three consecutive matches and will face No. 17 seed Elina Svitolina in the Round of 16. Their head-to-head is deadlocked at 2-2, and this will be their first meeting on clay.
Paolini was looking to reach the fourth round in her fifth consecutive WTA 1000 event of 2025.
Sakkari had six aces and was broken only once. Meanwhile, she broke Paolini’s serve six times.
Pegula came into the match having won seven of eight matches this year on clay, including the recent title in Charleston, and was looking to post her 28th win of the season, which would have been a WTA Tour high. But the first meeting with Uchijima did not go as expected.
Uchijima broke her serve five times, while saving five of seven. She’ll meet the winner of the late match between No. 14 Daria Kasatkina and No. 21 Ekaterina Alexandrova on Tuesday.
