No.2 seed Maria Sakkari of Greece eased into the quarterfinals of the Guadalajara Open Akron with a comprehensive 6-2, 6-2 victory over Italy's Camila Giorgi on Wednesday.
"It’s always very tricky to play Camila, because she’s a very aggressive player," Sakkari said afterwards. "I’m very happy to be back in the quarterfinals here."
Guadalajara 2023: Scores | Order of Play | Draws
World No.9 Sakkari, who was runner-up to Jessica Pegula at Guadalajara last year, sets up an elite-eight showdown against surprise package Emiliana Arango of Colombia.
Here are more facts and figures surrounding Sakkari's performance:
66: Sakkari needed only 66 minutes to prevail on Wednesday, improving her head-to-head against 56th-ranked Giorgi to a commanding 4-0. Sakkari has never lost more than three games in a set against Giorgi.
⚡️ SAKKATTACK ⚡️@mariasakkari continues to shine in Guadalajara she defeats Giorgi 6-2, 6-2, and is into the final eight. #GDLOpenAKRON pic.twitter.com/WIUgc7xrrY
— wta (@WTA) September 20, 2023
31: Sakkari notched her 31st match-win of the 2023 season with her latest triumph. 22 of those 31 wins have come on hard courts, a surface on which Sakkari has made six WTA finals during her career.
12: This will be Sakkari's 12th WTA 1000 quarterfinal of her career, and her third of 2023 after Indian Wells and Madrid. Sakkari reached a career-best four WTA 1000 quarterfinals last year.
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8: Sakkari had eight winners to Giorgi's five in the match. The Greek also had 11 unforced errors, but that number was much smaller than Giorgi's 29.
"I know my unforced errors were very low, which is something that I was hoping before going into the match," Sakkari said. "I’m just very satisfied with the way I played because that was exactly what I had in mind."
6: Sakkari converted six of her eight break points, with three breaks of service in each set. Sakkari stormed to a 5-0 lead to start the match, and though the No.2 seed fell behind an early break in the second set, she regrouped and won the last six games consecutively.
180: Sakkari will now have her first meeting with World No.180 Arango for a spot in the semifinals.
Read more: Five things to know about Colombia's Emiliana Arango
The rising 22-year-old Arango moved into her first career WTA 1000 quarterfinal by edging Taylor Townsend of the United States 7-5, 1-6, 6-4. Arango was down a break at 4-2 in the third set before collecting the next four games in a row to oust Townsend.