OMNIUM BANQUE NATIONALE

August 8, 2023

Maria Sakkari

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Maria, welcome to Montreal, first of all, coming quick turnaround from a great week in Washington. How's the settling in going?

MARIA SAKKARI: Obviously it's always a good thing when you come late to the next tournament when you don't have many days to prepare. Obviously there are positives and negatives, but at the same time I would take that every week.

At least, you know, the conditions -- I mean, it's a lot cooler here, but it's still humid. Different balls, but I had a good practice today.

Yeah, I'm excited to be back in Montreal. It's an amazing city and a great tournament.

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. What are your keys for you to hit peak performance during a tournament similar to how you played in D.C.?

MARIA SAKKARI: You mean tennis-wise or --

Well, I've been trying with -- I had a chat with Tom after Wimbledon, and we said that I have to bring back my aggressive game. I've been winning a lot of matches this year in tournaments by surviving. You know, just making balls and just not playing my tennis.

Now I think that the good thing of losing early at Wimbledon was that I had a good amount of time to practice and get a lot of hours on the court and get back that aggressive game.

I think that it was pretty obvious beating those players who were in very good form last week was huge for me. I don't want to say too much, but I really believe that it was a turning point after, you know, not feeling good most of the part of the season and also last season.

But at the same time I just feel good with myself again, and I'm happy again.

Q. I think that maybe you have one of the toughest draws of this tournament. What do you expect of your game this week?

MARIA SAKKARI: Well, you know, I don't think you can really get any easy matches going into a 1000 event into the second round. Obviously I don't know who is winning, but they are both very good players.

What Elina has achieved is incredible in a very short time, and I think Danielle is as well coming back and trying to find her form again.

But I'm just going to focus on what I did last week, which was playing very aggressive tennis and just trying to be myself on the court.

Q. You're obviously still looking for your first big title. Do you start to feel the urge to win that title, especially with the young players coming and doing well?

MARIA SAKKARI: Well, I still consider myself young (laughing). Okay, I'm not a teenager, but at the same time I feel -- obviously I'm not going to be playing tennis forever, but yeah, it's in the back of my mind.

I really want to win that title. I know it's going to come. I keep saying that. I don't really care how people make fun of me losing all the semis and finals. I really, really don't care anymore. I know that it's going to come.

Maybe it will be a bigger one than last week, so I'm going to focus on what I did good last week, which really worked, and it was my aggressive mindset, my good mentality. And I'm still in the top 10, which is very helpful in a lot of things.

Yeah, I'm excited for this swing. I'm very excited.

Q. You've been in the top 5 last year for a short period of time I think. How do you measure your success? Do you think a lot about the rankings?

MARIA SAKKARI: I got to No. 3 in the world, but it doesn't really make a difference being 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. You're still a very good player.

And even if I drop outside of the top 10, you're still an amazing player. It doesn't really make a difference. It only makes a difference obviously in draws, in maybe some benefits in tournaments, but really you get the same amount of respect from other players.

It's nothing that I really have a maniac about. Of course, I want to become No. 1, but at the same time I know if I do the right things, I'm going to get back to where I was.