The first semifinal of the Indian Wells 2023 women’s draw has already decided who is the first finalist of the tournament: the Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka. The world number 2 defeated the Greek Maria Sakkari by 6-2 6-3 in a game that dominated from the beginning. In addition, the match was delayed for half an hour due to technical problems, the automatic hawk-eye format did not work. After that mishap, Sabalenka did her thing and scored a regular and safe match on serve, managing to intimidate Sakkari. The Greek tried to find her weak points, but she herself did not know how to balance her tennis. In this way, Sabalenka is already waiting for A story about Rybakina. With this victory, the Belarusian remains at 17-1 at this start of the season.
The match couldn’t start in a better way for Sabalenka, who shot aces to sign up for the first game of the match. For his part, Sakkari suffered more than necessary in his first serve, in which his rival took advantage of his unforced errors to jeopardize his serve. However, an imposing Sabalenka on serve and aggressive to the rest got the break in the second service turn of the Greek, who was unable to gauge his shots. In those moments, Sakkari got into the game to squeeze his opponent’s second serves and chase every ball from side to side.
He regretted not converting his first break chance, but his opponent gave him the counter break after a double fault, how opportune. For her part, the Belarusian attacked Sakkari’s first serves in a way, who, indeed, felt the pressure and found herself overwhelmed in a game that at first seemed comfortable. Break of Sabalenka. As the great server that she is, the Belarusian went from less to more and destabilized a Sakkari who ended up conceding the set.
Sakkari’s ups and downs did not let him get into the game
In the second round, the Greek wanted to start again, being more aggressive and trying to vary the height of the balls, but without finding the holes. In this context, Sakkari continued with her ups and downs, at times she seemed to not quite believe it and, at others, she seemed to be re-entering the game. Just as she ended up losing her serve right out of the gate, she stood up to a consistent Sabalenka to break serve for the second time in the match.
But those comings and goings of the Greek condemned him, at the same time that the dominance of his rival was prevailing. At that point in the match, everything had already been decided and the current Australian Open champion won the match. A big step prior to a final in which she will have to show that same level that has led her to be where she is in recent months and in which she will not have it easy against either of the two rivals she is already waiting for.
