Sakkari Comes From a Set Down to Beat Kostyuk in Wuhan

By Taki Panos

Maria Sakkari has had a season of bright flashes, and Tuesday in Wuhan was one of the brightest. The Greek, now ranked 35th in the world, dropped the first set to eighth seed Marta Kostyuk and then took over the match, winning 4-6, 6-2, 6-2 to reach the round of 16 at the Wuhan Open, a WTA 1000 event, as the WTA reported. It was her third Top 10 win of 2026, and it came the hard way.

It has been a good week for Greek tennis in China. Over in Shanghai, Stefanos Tsitsipas is still alive too, after his comeback win over Taylor Fritz set up a fourth-round meeting with Daniil Medvedev. Two Greeks coming from a set down to beat seeded opponents in the same week is not something we get to write about very often, so allow me to enjoy it.

Kostyuk, the world No. 10, had the better of the opening set, and for a while it looked like the ranking gap was going to tell the story. From the second set on, the match looked completely different. Sakkari started dictating the rallies instead of reacting to them, and once she found that gear, she never really let it go for the rest of the match.

The numbers back that up. Sakkari converted five of the ten break points she created and lost her serve only twice in the whole match, according to the match stats on Tennis.com. She also won 72 percent of the points on her second serve, which tells you she was the one setting the terms in the rallies. Second-serve points are where confidence shows, and hers was clearly back.

It was not a flawless day on serve. She hit five double faults and no aces, which is not the line you expect from a player who beats a top-10 opponent. But Tennis Temple described her as particularly solid over the last two sets, while Kostyuk gradually lost her rhythm, and the 6-2, 6-2 scoreline in those sets backs that up completely.

Wins like this have been hard to come by for Sakkari against the very top of the game. Before Tuesday she was 2-7 against Top 10 opponents in 2026, with both wins coming on her run to the Doha semifinals, over Jasmine Paolini and Iga Swiatek, according to the WTA match notes. Beating Paolini and Swiatek in the same week is a reminder of what her best level looks like.

Kostyuk was no soft target either. She won her first WTA 1000 title in Madrid this year, beating Mirra Andreeva in the final, and she had won their two most recent meetings, at Wimbledon in 2023 and at the Paris Olympics in 2024. With this win, Sakkari now leads their head-to-head 3-2. Turning around a rivalry that had been drifting the other way is a quiet but meaningful achievement.

There is some Wuhan history here as well. Sakkari, a former world No. 3 and the 2023 Guadalajara champion, reached the semifinals in this tournament back in 2017. Players often talk about certain courts and certain cities simply suiting them, and on the evidence of Tuesday, Wuhan still seems to agree with her game. Familiar surroundings can be worth a lot in the long, tiring Asian swing.

Her best result so far this season was a runner-up finish in Athens, where she lost the final to Barbora Krejcikova. Reaching a final at home is a special thing for any Greek player, even if the last match did not go her way. Wuhan is a different stage, but the same lesson applies: when Sakkari plays with freedom and aggression, she can still beat almost anyone on the other side of the net.

In the round of 16, Sakkari will face the winner of the second-round match between wildcard Mia Pohankova and home favorite Wang Xiyu. Either way, it is a draw that gives her a real chance to keep going. If you are following from abroad and want Greek coverage of her matches, our guide on how to watch Greek TV online can help.

My take: a ranking of 35 does not describe the player who showed up on Tuesday. Sakkari has always been at her best when she plays with freedom, and after losing the first set she swung like someone with nothing to lose. If she can stack a couple more of these in Wuhan, the rest of her autumn gets a lot more interesting, and so does her ranking heading into the new year.

For more stories like this one, keep an eye on our Greek Sports section. Down a set against the world No. 10, then twelve of the next sixteen games. That is the Sakkari Greek fans have been waiting to see again.

Sources: WTA, Tennis.com, Tennis Temple, WTA match notes.

Image: Flag of Greece, via Wikimedia Commons (public domain).