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Maria Sakkari will take on Caroline Dolehide in the final of the Guadalajara Open on Saturday. On Friday, the second-seeded Sakkari and the unseeded Dolehide made their way into the final with imperious wins in their respective semi-finals.
Playing against Caroline Garcia, who was seeded third this week in Mexico, Sakkari took just 71 minutes to post a 6-3, 6-0 win for herself.
Guadalajara Open: Maria Sakkari plays her way back into triumphs
Coming into the tournament, both Garcia and Sakkari were looking to beat the patch of poor results that had waylaid them.
And up to the semi-finals, both had succeeded tremendously. However, in the semi-finals, Sakkari emerged as the better player even as Garcia struggled to even put in her serves. This was especially true of the second set. In that set, the 29-year-old put only 29% of her first serves in to her opponent’s 58%.
Of the five first serve points she landed in, Garcia won only two across the match even as Sakkari won nine of the 15 first-serve points she put in. Sakkari also did well on second-serve returns, finishing the match by winning 10 of 13 points played on return on Garcia’s second serve.
Of the 11 points played on her second serve, the world no. 9 won seven. Both players faced three break points each in the set but while Garcia failed to save all of the lot, Sakkari did the opposite to keep herself well ahead in the clash.
Meanwhile, in the other semi-final, Caroline Dolehide paused the incredible return-of-form of Sofia Kenin in an hour and 25 minutes to clinch a 7-5, 6-3 victory. Kenin raced away in both sets after securing early breaks. However, Dolehide came up with convincing play on both such occasions to first peg Kenin back and then take the lead, eventually all the way to the win.
The 111th-ranked Dolehide faced eight break points to her fellow American’s five. But where she saved six of these, Kenin could manage to save only one. The Guadalajara Open title round’s the first time that Caroline Dolehide’s made it to the final of a WTA 1000 event.
It’s also her debut in the final of a WTA tournament of any kind. On the other hand, this is the second consecutive year in which Maria Sakkari’s contesting the final of the Mexican tournament. Like in 2022, she’ll be playing an American. Back that year, Sakkari lost the final to Jessica Pegula.