Another top five win for Maria Sakkari as she stuns top seed Elina Svitolina in Ostrava

WTA Tour
Maria Sakkari in action

Top seed Elina Svitolina fell at the first hurdle of the Ostrava Open as she went down in straight sets against Maria Sakkari while fourth seed Victoria Azarenka bounced back from poor first set.

Sakkari dominated the opening set and, although Svitolina briefly held the advantage in the second set, the Greek won 6-3, 6-3 to secure her fourth win over a top five player.

The world No 23 took a commanding 3-0 lead in the opener after breaking twice, but Svitolina managed to get one break back before Sakkari broke a third time to seal the set.

The Ukrainian world No 5 then edged ahead in game three of the second set with a break, but Sakkari hit back immediately before getting the decisive break in game eight.

“Obviously winning [against] a player like Elina, the way I played, I think that made me the most happy today,” she said. “I think playing like this gives me a lot of confidence. And of course, getting another top five win is very important for me.”

Sakkari will face either Jelena Ostapenko or Ons Jabeur in the quarter-final.

Two-time Grand Slam winner Azarenka could be a semi-final opponent after the fourth seed overcame a nightmare start to beat Barbora Krejcikova.

Czech qualifier Krejcikova broke twice in the first set before Azarenka returned the favour with interest as she broke twice in the second and third sets to win 2-6, 6-2, 6-1.

Azarenka will face either Karolina Muchova or seventh seed Elise Mertens in the quarter-finals.

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Elina Svitolina Maria Sakkari Victoria Azarenka

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