Most of 2025 and 2026 have been a struggle for Maria Sakkari. She reached the final of the Athens Open, but has mostly been bounced out in the opening round or second round of tournaments. She faced the same potential fate against 21-year-old Linda Fruhvirtova at the Singapore Open.
Fruhvirtova has had her own interesting recent run on the WTA Tour. She teases excellence, but struggles with consistency. She is still young enough to reach a high level of success, but has too many dips in form to be counted on to win enough to take titles.
That is the match that shaped up in the opening round between the players. Sakkari got off to a bad start and was broken in the first game, but then midway through, Fruhvirtova began to hit too many unforced errors and allowed Sakkari to level the set at 4-all.
Maria Sakkari defeats Linda Fruhvirtova in the first round of the Singapore Open
Sakkari didn't stop there either. After being down 2-4, she raced back to take the set 6-4 with a blend of excellent court coverage and brilliant power. She had full momentum heading into the second set, and Fruhvirtova, who was struggling with double faults, didn't appear to act as if she knew she could come back.
The second set started no better for the Czech player. By the time the Greek led 4-0, Sakkari had reeled off eight straight games. The outcome was no longer in doubt, but whether Fruhvirtova would win a game in the final set was.
She would, but just one. The positive is that at least she didn't give up completely and kept battling until the brutal end of a match she was nowhere near winning after the midway point in the first set.
Sakkari was able to hold at 5-1 with relative ease, looking in the kind of form she would need to make a deep run in the tournament. She has been in the same situation before in 2026, though, and failed. Maybe the Singapore tournament will change her fortunes.
Maria Sakkari will play Nao Hibino next in the second round of the 2026 Singapore Open. The winner of that match could potentially take on Alex Eala in the semifinals.
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