The Greek Maria Sakkari easily dominated the French Caroline Garcia (6-2, 6-2) on Friday in the quarter-finals of the WTA 500 tournament in Tokyo, a week after having already deprived her of a final in Guadalajara. Garcia, world No.10, got off to a very bad start by losing his first two service games. The games were often close, but it was the Greek who won the key points, while the Frenchwoman increased the number of unforced errors and showed signs of annoyance. Garcia can blame himself for having had six break points in total in the second set but for not being able to convert them.
Sakkari had already soundly beaten her last Friday in the semi-finals of the WTA 1000 tournament in Guadalajara (6-3, 6-0) and won the title in the process. After having shone in 2022 (title in Cincinnati, last four at the US Open and coronation at the end-of-year Masters), Garcia had a disappointing season this year, having been until now unable to beat a top player 10.
Sakkari meets Saturday in the semi-final with American Jessica Pegula (world No.4), who crushed Russian Daria Kasatkina (6-1, 6-0) earlier this Friday. The other semi-final will be an all-Russian duel between Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Veronika Kudermetova, who caused a sensation on Friday by eliminating the Polish Iga Swiatek, world No.2 and first seed in Tokyo.
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