[hellas719]

Originally Posted by hellas719

She won 7-6 6-1!
R2: Sakkari d. (1) Balducci (Italy, #441) 7-6 7-5 Best win of her career so far
QF vs. (7) Njiric (Croatia, #588) Former top 10 junior but not impossible! Go Maria!!!

6-4 1-6 4-6

A photo from Heraklion:

[hellas719]

Originally Posted by Sasja

Used a few different colourings:

[hellas719]

10K Heraklion II:
R1: Sakkari GRE d. Hristea ROU (#687) 1-6 6-2 7-6
R2: (2) Balducci ITA (#441) d. Sakkari GRE 6-4 6-2
*I guess she couldn't make it 2 in a row against Balducci . *But I think she is injured because she pulled out of 10K Heraklion III
Photos from Heraklion:

[hellas719]

Up to 663
New career high for her

Next stop is 10K Rethymno next week. I think this will be her first time being seeded

[hellas719]

^Had to withdraw unfortunately, but she achieved a new CHR this week, #661 this time
From Fed Cup:

[hellas719]

10K Istanbul R1 vs. (Q) Arantekin TUR

[Danii's Law]

Where has she been? She hasn't played in over a month.

I'm not sure what keeps happening to the Greek girls. They're always disappearing. Do they not understand that when you're young you have to play a lot to get match practice.

[hellas719]

Originally Posted by Danii's Law

Where has she been? She hasn't played in over a month.

I'm not sure what keeps happening to the Greek girls. They're always disappearing. Do they not understand that when you're young you have to play a lot to get match practice.

I agree with what you're saying but some of the girls like Maria have age restrictions so they can't play as many pro events as they probably want to. But I see no reason why Maria shouldn't be playing juniors. She hasn't played juniors in about a year, and she can do well there and it would be interesting to see how far she could go in the junior rankings. On the other hand, a lot of the Greek girls stop playing because of financial reasons, injuries, or because they don't think they can make the top 100 so they quit. Its a shame. If they all continued to play, we would've had Gerasimou, Georgatou, Kontratevidi, Roussi, and maybe Kipritidiou in GS qualies. Its crazy how much better we could be doing. On top of that, Koumantou was on her way to being a doubles specialist but stopped playing because she just wasn't making money on tour and didn't receive support from he federation. Other than Daniilidou, I can't ever remember a Greek girl playing on tour past the age of 25. Papadaki was 26 and still top 100 before she quit. Fafaliou is turning 26 in November and I honestly can't see her continuing with her injuries because she basically has no shot anymore at beating ranked opponents. And then a lot of the younger girls who could be good top 200/300/400 players just retire. Some have now started to play college tennis in the US which is good because it helps them improve and get a degree at the same time. Kordolaimi made the right choice by doing so since she was an amazing 15 year old but then had so many injuries and was out of the game for about 2 years, and now she is improving in the US and plans on going pro after she graduates in 2015. Some others have just given up and they really should've tried going pro or going to college, I won't waste my time saying names though but for example Eleni Konstantinidou is still just 18 and when she was 17 she beat a player ranked 410 and now she hasn't played in a year . I think they need 10Ks in Greece every week like they do in Turkey. I mean, look how many good and also mediocre Turkish players get to continue their careers in those tournaments. In Greece I heard they are trying to do something similar and they tested it out in Heraklion and they said if the resorts made a profit then they would keep holding these tournaments . So I guess we will see what happens in the future.

In other words, a huge problem is $$$$, and even before the crisis the Greek Federation didn't have much money to begin with. And the federation president is an idiot and he is so corrupt and makes it almost impossible for players to make it big. The only reason Eleni made it was because she comes from a wealthy family of dentists. Sakkari (and Markos Kalovelonis) are the biggest hopes for the future not only because they are talented, but also because their parents used to play as Maria's mother was in the top 50 and the best Greek player ever before Eleni, and Markos' father was in the top 150 and also was the Greek Fed and Davis Cup captain for years. Greek tennis, so much wasted talent. And on the mens side Mazarakis, Georgoudas, Kelftakos, Gemouchidis, Mikos, Kapogiannis, Katsigiannakis, Alexiou, Papachristopoulos, Glezos, etc. all were promising but for whatever reason have failed or are currently failing to fulfill their potential

[hellas719]

Back to Maria...

I haven't been active here lately, but Maria got up to a career-high of 651 but she's now ranked 687. Here are her recent results:
10K Istanbul:
R1: d. (Q) S.Arantenkin TUR (#947) 6-4 6-2
R2: d. (7) N.Abdala MEX (#556) 6-2 6-1
QF: d. (1) M.Sezer TUR (#382) 6-3 2-6 6-3 BEST WIN OF HER CAREER SO FAR!
SF: l. to B.Eraydin TUR (#926) 6-3 6-2
*Great tournament and its good to see that she keeps improving and can compete with higher ranked players. Good tournament but a disappointing finish. I think after she beat Sezer she expected to cruise through the rest of the tournament . Anyways, I think as long as she stays healthy and keeps playing well, she can end the year at least in the top 500. And in about a month, she will turn 17 so she can play more tournaments

She then took off 5 weeks and then played 25K Lenzerheide:
QR1: BYE
QR2: d. C.Volejnicek SUI (NR) 6-2 6-1
QR3: l. to (9) Pigossi BRA (#805 WTA,#23 juniors) 6-2 6-2
But got an LL and then R1: l. to Smitkova CZE (#477) 6-2 6-2

This week 25K Rome:
QR1: d. (WC) Crescenzi ITA (NR) 6-1 6-0
FQR: d. (4) Milevskaya BLR (#439) 4-6 6-3 6-2
R1: l. to (6) Chakhnashvili GEO (#201) 7-5 6-2
*Another great tournament. Milevskaya was a former #1 in juniors and a former WTA #227 and she's on her way up the rankings again, coming back from injury and she's been in pretty good form this year. And Chakhnashvili is a tour veteran who was once ranked as high as 135 in 2008. Great tournament for Maria and she once again has shown how well she can play and how good she is . Now I think she should mix up her schedule with 10Ks, 15Ks, and some weaker 25Ks so she can rise up the rankings

[Danii's Law]

That's all interesting stuff. I thought that money would play a big part. So has Georgiatou retired then or is she just missing?

These girls really need some help, even Eleni. Her coach situation is dismal, she neds to pay the money and find someone good. I really really want Tony Roach to coach her but that's as unlikely as Gerasimou coming back and winning Roland Garros.

[chingching]

It was a good win from her over Ksyusha, as clay is Ksyusha's best surface, she's in the best form in about 3 years and she has no injuries. Since her near upset of Jani, I have been watching her and she seems to have a lot of potential. If she could maybe play some easier tournaments out of Europe or Juniors she might get her ranking up

[chingching]

MARIA IS PLAYING PALERMO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
How exciting
And first round she has a WC
If she manages to win that, she has another WC!!!!!!! Or Cabeza Candella, top seed
Anyway, I hope she can get some confidence from this and find where she sits at this level
She has been playing well in Italy with a good win over Milevskaya so I hope she can make the Second Round and do some damage to Cabeza Candella

[Wonderwall.]

Maria won her QR1 in Palermo.
She defeated [wc]Brancato 60 61

[chingching]

Originally Posted by Wonderwall.

Maria won her QR1 in Palermo.
She defeated [wc]Brancato 60 61

Despite her serve stats being a bit iffy (only won 46% of points on second serve), her return stats were amazing (76% of points won on first serve return, 86% on second serve). She seems to rise to a higher level when she has to and likes the big events like Fed Cup and WTAs

It's a lovely 32 Degrees Celcius and sunny in Italy, so when her match starts at 4PM hopefully she will be ready to go

[hellas719]

0-6 1-6 against (1) Cabeza-Candela in QR2, but that was expected as Estrella is currently ranked 162, a clay court specialist, and is now through to the quarterfinals of the main draw in Palermo so this is not at all a bad loss for Maria even though it would've been nice if she could've won a few more games

Also she withdrew from the challenger in Romania she was supposed to play next week, so she's probably heading to WTA Bastad instead . And then she isn't signed up for anything the following week, so she'll most likely be at WTA Baku . I think it's cool that she is trying WTA events, even though I think this will be enough for her for now and then she should go back to ITF tournaments