MUBADALA CITI DC OPEN

July 23, 2025

Maria Sakkari

Quick Quotes

M. SAKKARI/E. Navarro

7-5, 7-6

Q. (Off mic.)

MARIA SAKKARI: 100%. I mean, I have never stayed home, home for a tournament. It feels great, you know. Obviously not many people know, I have chatted to you in the past, that I get to spend a lot of time here, so it is a great city. You know, I just love it here.

Obviously Greece and Monaco are my first homes, but the last two years is where I spend a lot of time.

Q. Do you think that's helped you play better this week?

MARIA SAKKARI: For sure. I really want to do well. My goal was I really wanted to spend my birthday here, so now I'm actually going to spend my birthday on Friday here. Hopefully with a win, but I'm just excited that I can, as I said, be home and just feel how -- because I don't have a tournament at home in Greece, just experience the whole, how can I say, atmosphere around playing at your home tournament. Well, not home tournament, but --

Q. Adopted?

MARIA SAKKARI: Yeah, adopted home.

Q. You should talk to Mark about it, putting a tournament in Greece.

MARIA SAKKARI: Yeah.

Q. What is the connection here? Why do you spend time beyond this tournament?

MARIA SAKKARI: My boyfriend went to Georgetown for his grad school and he works here, so love sometimes makes you move. So, yeah, that's the connection.

Q. On the court, playing very well, four sets won. What do you think has allowed you to enjoy the success? You were pushed tonight, but what's allowed you to enjoy the success for your two matches?

MARIA SAKKARI: I have worked hard the last, not 12 months but, like, 9 months, let's say, 8 months after coming back from my injury at this time last year.

I knew it was going to start picking up at some point, it's been good, it hasn't been where I want it to be, but it's a good start. I just feel like, you know, it was going to happen sooner or later.

I'm just so happy that I get to play good tennis here in D.C., because I love this swing. I feel like it's very good for my game.

Q. With only hard-court tournaments to go the rest of the year, is that a sign of relief, versus grass?

MARIA SAKKARI: You know, just being scared that something's going to happen to your body, playing on that surface.

You know, hard court is my best surface, for sure. I love clay, as well, but I'll take hard court any day. I'm just so excited, because I had a week off. It's really helped me. I feel like recharged and ready to go for, you know, full calendar now hopefully.

Q. Players were talking about the US Open balls, how they fly. Wondering how you feel about them in general?

MARIA SAKKARI: They feel weird. They fly sometimes and sometimes they stay on your racquet. I have mixed emotions about the ball. Obviously I've been serving well, so I'm not going to lie they have been good for my serve.

I just learn how to adapt with every ball playing every tournament, because that's the truth that we play with different balls every week. It is what it is and we have to take it.

Q. Have you developed a community of friends here at the tournament watching you?

MARIA SAKKARI: Yeah, I have a few friends. Obviously the head coach of Georgetown tennis was here. The head of racquet sports at Georgetown was also here, because they let me use their facilities, which I'm very grateful.

I have a couple of friends from Greece that live here, and my boyfriend has introduced me to his friends. I'm for sure not up there with how many tickets Frances asks for, but I probably have close to 10 tickets. That's not bad, right?

Q. Pretty good. When you had your final run here two years ago, you were already...

MARIA SAKKARI: No. I was with my boyfriend but my boyfriend moved a month later. That was my first time that I visited D.C., and I loved it. I told him, I remember the message, saying that you are going to move to one of the nicest places I have been to. Lucky guy.

Q. Obviously you made the final here and you like the conditions. Do you think it suits your game? (Indiscernible.)

MARIA SAKKARI: For sure, I like it when there's high bounce on the court. I just don't like it when it's heavy but slow. Everyone is different. Some players do like it this way; some other players like it that way. I just prefer it obviously this way.

Q. Next match, they haven't played each other before, Osaka and Raducanu. Thoughts on them? I'm curious, they are two pretty famous players but never faced each other before.

MARIA SAKKARI: Yeah, that's rare, but there are some players out there that I believe have never faced each other. I never played, I don't remember now, but I haven't played a couple of players.

It's going to be interesting because they are both playing good. Emma obviously had a great run in Wimbledon. She's been playing really well. But I feel like Naomi is also getting up there.

I actually went up to her, it was in Rome after she played that 125, and that for me was great. That, for me, I respected her before, but after that, like, I had massive respect. Because not a lot of Grand Slam champions and superstars like she is would do something like that.

I feel like that would really help her to come back to the top, and I just feel like she's been playing great tennis and it's going to come.

Q. You went up to her and told her that?

MARIA SAKKARI: Yeah. (Indiscernible.) I said it from my heart and I believe it. It was amazing. Conditions are not great and it's a 125, and it's not great, but that shows a lot of strength and a lot of mental strength.

Q. (Indiscernible question.)

MARIA SAKKARI: It was very tough, like in Rome, obviously I asked for a wildcard and they said we're only giving it to Italians. I thought, you know what? Might be good to play some quallies. Get some matches.

(Indiscernible.) I feel like in the end, it's going to be a nicer story just having to grind in quallies and just having to do it the tough way. I feel like it's going to be nicer and more rewarding, let's say.

Q. Emma had such a great year last year and is now having to come back and defend those points. What do you feel like you learned from your first season having to back up a bunch of results from the year before?

MARIA SAKKARI: Yeah, it was tough. I don't remember where I finished in 2022, I believe I think same ranking. I think I finished 2021 No. 6, and I remember playing the Finals in '22 in Fort Worth.

If I had lost to either Aryna or Ons, I would have finished 5, but because I won that match I finished 6. Because Aryna qualified for the semis, she overtook me. I finished 6 two times in a row.

It wasn't easy. It was tough. You have to come back and defend all your points. If not defend, make as many points as you did the year before.

You know, it's challenging. That's why they say, it's one thing getting to the top. It's another thing staying. So for me there is a lot of respect for players that stayed all those years at the top of the game, for sure.

Q. Have you considered taking any classes at Georgetown and what you might want to study?

MARIA SAKKARI: Not at Georgetown, but I applied for the Harvard School extension, the two-month program. Yeah, hopefully I'll get accepted.

Q. (Indiscernible.)

MARIA SAKKARI: So, yeah hopefully I get accepted. I'm not going to be able to attend, because I'll be in Asia. You live in Boston? I will be in Asia, so hopefully...

Q. Has your boyfriend played...

MARIA SAKKARI: He's a normal human being. He's not a tennis player. (Laughter.)

Q. You said the Georgetown tennis coach...

MARIA SAKKARI: Because I spend a lot of time here, I had to find a place to practice, and actually...

Q. What does he do?

MARIA SAKKARI: He was at the foreign service school.

Q. Did he get out of work to be here this week?

MARIA SAKKARI: He finished work at 5:30. Thankfully transport picked him up from his office and straight to my match. I'm very thankful.