Sakkari dispatches Hibi in the 2nd round of the Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic

MUBADALA SILICON VALLEY CLASSIC - SAN JOSE. Sakkari gets by Hibi to square off with Elina Svitolina in the quarter

By
Luke Meyer
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Prediction and head to head Maria Sakkari vs. Mayo Hibi

Maria Sakkari bests Mayo Hibi 4-6 6-4 6-2 in the 2nd round in San Jose on Wednesday. Sakkari will play Elina Svitolina in the quarter.

Score, report, and key facts

1st set.

Both players managed to hold their serve for the entire set. The only difference was just 1 break that Mayo conquered in the 5th game (3-2) before winning the set (6-4).

2nd set.

Hibi had a pretty good kick start of the set after breaking Sakkari in the 1st game (1-0). Nevertheless, Maria succeeded in coming back to break Hibi 3 times in the 2nd (1-1), in the 4th (3-1) gamein the 10th game before winning the set (6-4) after breaking his opponent in the last game.

3rd set.

Sakkari had a running start at the beginning of the set after breaking Hibi in the 2nd game (2-0) before consolidating her break and lead 4-0. Anyhow, that wasn’t sufficient for Sakkari to win the set since Mayo managed to break back in the 5th (1-4) and in the 7th (2-5) game. Maria maintained her focus to break Mayo in the 6th (5-1) and in the 8th (6-2) game.

Sakkari failed to serve out the set when leading 5-1 to be broken at 15.

A crucial moment of the match was when the Greek won 4 consecutive games in the 3rd set to change the scoreline from 0-0 to 4-0.

At the end of the match, Maria scored 113 points vs. the Japanese’s 93 points.

Maria won this match even if she was struggling in finding the solution in converting her break points as she converted only 47% (7/15). On the other side, the Japanese was not so effective in converting her break points because she converted only 25% of her break points (5/20). That was one of the key issues for her defeat.

After this encounter, the head to head between Sakkari and Hibi is 1-0 for Maria.

Highlights Maria Sakkari vs. Mayo Hibi Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic – San Jose

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Sakkari’s Interview

Maria commented: “I know I didn’t play great, but I came back. I never stopped believing that I could win. I fought hard and that’s why I think I turned the match around. I had to be more patient. I was not patient at all in the first set-and-a-half. With some good shots and some good serves, I think my serve was a big key for my game today. I’m very happy that I went through this battle today.”

Next Match: Maria Sakkari vs. Elina Svitolina – H2H and stats

Sakkari will compete against Svitolina in the quarter.

This will be the 2nd time that Maria Sakkari and Elina Svitolina clash against each other. The head to head is 1-0 for Svitolina (see full H2H stats), but they have never played each other on hard.

The last time that they squared off, Svitolina won 6-3 6-71 6-2 in the 3rd round in London back in July 2019.