Maria Sakkari’s concerning crisis continues at Merida Open Akron as Zeynep Sonmez starts title defense

Maria Sakkari usually thrives in Mexico with the Greek Spartan being a pretty popular figure in the country. She won Guadalajara two years ago and headed to Merida Open Akron hoping to find herself back in form. But this was soon dented further by Zeynep Sonmez.

Sonmez to her credit won the title last season albeit when it was a WTA 250 over the WTA 500 it now is. But is a player in comparison to Sakkari who is on the rise and picked up one of the biggest wins of her career thus far against the Greek.

It was a 7-5, 6-2 win for Sonmez who held the edge on all facets, she won 73% of her first serve points and saved 3/6 of break points. But she also carved out many with 6/11 compared to 3/6 from Sakkari.

Sakkari spoke recently about feeling more at peace with her current plight after a lengthy stint on the sidelines with a shoulder injury and also working with the former coach of Elina Svitolina in Raemon Sluiter who brought her such success on her comeback. But in reality, the road is continually long and winding for the Greek.

Seemingly she won’t be getting back to her top five best yet and with Indian Wells final set to be defended in the next few weeks and a good run also in Miami, her ranking slide could be further and leave her searching for opportunities that might not come as easy going into clay.

Also out were Marta Kostyuk who lost to Daria Saville. While Rebecca Sramkova won against Lulu Sun 6-3, 6-1. Sloane Stephens though also slumped out of the tournament losing to Petra Martic who like Sakkari is not getting results.

There are a number of players searching for answers and Sakkari is one that isn’t getting them.