The Greek player Maria Sakkari defeated the former World No. 1 Serena Williams in the WSO-Western and Southern Open 2020.
The Round 3 match played in safety bubble in Flushing Meadows, New York, was decided with the score 5-7, 7-6, 6-1.
Being the first match ever match between the two, Williams being at WSO rank 3 had psychological advantage over Sakkari who is at WSO rank 13. Williams took lead in the first set with Sakkari managing to edge past Serena to win the second set and equalise the match score 1-1. After the first two sets the World rank 21, Sakkari did not face much trouble in winning match against the world rank 9 Williams.
The 25 years old Sakkari will now contest against 29 years old World rank 8 Johanna Konta of England in the quarter-finals.
After this the former WSO top 3 players namely Karolina Pliskova of Czechoslovakia, Sofia Keninhave of America. and Serena Williams are out of tournament before the quarter finals.
Earlier this month Williams was defeated by World number 116 Shelby Rogers during the Top Seed Open 2020 quarter-finals in Lexington.
However, the 38 years old Serena Williams will now look for her 7th victory in the US Open set to start from 31st August at the same place. She has won 23 Grand Slam titles and has been WTA World Tennis Association World rank 1 for 8 times spanning a time period of 319 weeks.
