Maria Sakkari claims she smelled burning marijuana during her opening round loss at the US Open 2023
Sakkari was defeated by the unseeded Spaniard Rebeka Masarova 4-6, 4-6.
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Maria Sakkari (Credits: user generated content)
Greek World No.8 Maria Sakkari‘s run in the US Open 2023 got stopped in the first round as she was bowed down by the unseeded Spaniard Rebeka Masarova 4-6, 4-6. This unexpected loss in the first round was too much to digest for the Greek star, and she came up with some open talks on weird happenings in and around the Flushing Meadows.
During the post-match conference, Sakkari said, “It was cannabis. I was not affected by this smell in any way. It was just a comment, it has nothing to do with the match. I smelled it yesterday in practice too, but it’s irrelevant. We can’t control it, it’s a back park & people can do whatever they want. You don’t think about it, all you care about is winning the match. I didn’t pay much attention.”
Though the Greek World No.8 said that the smell of marijuana has nothing to do with the results, why did these comments come from her? One side of the fans pointed out that she was trying to re-focus the attention from this embarrassing loss while others did not want to see this as anything relevant to hide her loss, as the Greek star herself said it has nothing to do with the results.
Maria Sakkari was asked to retire by a section of fans
The devastating loss of the Greek top player Maria Sakkari was not welcomed warmly by the tennis fans. Many of the fans openly criticized her for coming with no preparations for a Grand Slam tournament and losing cheaply to an unseeded player in the first round. Earlier, her Wimbledon campaign was also ended in the first round. The 28-year-old then lost to unseeded Ukrainian Marta Kostyuk.
After Wimbledon though, Sakkari reached the finals of the Citi Open, she was not able to carry the momentum in any of the future tournaments. After the runner-up finish below Coco Gauff in the Citi Open, she failed to capitalize on any of the tournaments. In the Canadian Open, she lost in the first round, and then in the Cincinnati Open, got humbled in the second round.
With this loss, Sakkari will be heading out of the top-10 rankings as well. It will be interesting to see how Sakkari can come back after back-to-back flops in both of the previous Grand Slam tournaments.
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Vipul Payattuparambil
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