Greek tennis player Maria Sakkari reached the pinnacle of her career in 2022. Although she won her first title at the Morocco Open in 2019, she became the World No. 3 in 2022 and became one of the most consistent performers in the WTA.
However, the added pressure of becoming one of the top 3 ranked players in the world brought with it an added burden and pressure, which was a bit too much for the then-26-year-old.
In a recent interview, Maria Sakkari revealed that she used to get panic attacks back in 2022 after she became World No. 3.
She said that being so close to potentially becoming the No. 1 ranked player in the world had a serious toll on her mentally and there were matches where she could not even breathe.
Last year, everything was going great. Getting to #3 in the rankings, but then there was a decline. I lost my mind a little bit. It came so fast. Just the idea of being that close to being world #1. I was not ready for it… Then I just started getting all of these panic attacks, & there were just matches that I couldn’t breathe. She said.
It had an impact on her performance and Sakkari was in a dark place for six months. She said that she felt mentally and physically empty and was scared of stepping into the court.
The haters, underestimating her and saying stuff like she was guaranteed to lose even if she got to the later stages of a tournament, got under her skin.
Maria Sakkari reveals she had considered quitting tennis forever
The Greek revealed that during her dark time, she had even considered retiring from the sport because she no longer had the fighting spirit in her.
Moreover, she kept losing matches, which did not work in her favor either.
For me it was disappointing. There were times when I could not deliver that fighting spirit. It has been killing me inside. I don’t want to play tennis forever. Maybe I should just quit. She said.
However, Maria Sakkari bounced back. She worked with her psychologist, who helped her not focus on the negative things.
She also started spending time with her family and realized that she could not be afraid of failures as they were part of the game. It did wonders for her, as she beat Caroline Dolehide in the final of the Guadalajara Open to win her second WTA title.
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