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By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Tuesday November 16, 2021

 
Anett Kontaveit

Anett Kontaveit rallied from a break down in the third set to top Maria Sakkari at the WTA Finals in Guadalajara.

Photo Source: Getty

All she does is win – and win some more. The torrid tennis of Estonia’s Anett Kontaveit continued on Tuesday night in Guadalajara as the 25-year-old sensation made it 29 wins in her last 32 matches with a 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 triump over Greece’s Maria Sakkari at the WTA Finals.

Tennis Express

She will face Garbine Muguruza, who topped Paula Badosa earlier on Tuesday, for the title on Wednesday.

Kontaveit has won her last eight semifinals, but none as big as Tuesday’s. The eight-ranked player in the world has come from out of nowhere in the last three months of the WTA season to introduce herself as a top-tier talent and, buoyed by newfound self-belief, she intends to make that success last.

After Tuesday's victory, she leads the WTA with 48 wins in 2021.

“I feel like the last few months have really showed me that I can play really well, I can beat great players consistently,” she told reporters after defeating Sakkari in a tense battle that was up for grabs until Kontaveit confidently reeled off the final four games. “I think I sort of have this self-belief now. When I came here, of course, I had nothing to lose. Every time I step on the court, I still think I can win the match, just do well.”


After storming through the opening set Sakkari dialed in her trademark grit and battled through a tight second set to force a decider. The Greek, who dropped to 3-14 lifetime in WTA semifinals with the loss, even moved ahead by a break in the third set, 3-2.

But it was then that Kontaveit flicked the switch and played courageously to storm away with the victory. She won the next eight points of the match to lead 4-3 then broke critically, taking a marathon eighth game that featured six deuces and eight game points by Sakkari, to lead 5-3.

She served out the match in the next game.

“I think my thought process in this moment was if this is going to be my last match of the season, I'm really going to enjoy it and just give it all that I have,” she said. “I think that gave me some sort of freedom. Of course, the self-confidence from the previous matches helps a lot in this situation, too.”


It was a difficult loss for Sakkari, leaving a sour taste in her mouth at the end of a breakthrough season. She made her Top-10 debut and played her first two major semifinals, but those achievements didn’t soften the angst on Tuesday.

"It's just very tough for me to talk about all this,” she said. “Today was, I have to say, a missed opportunity from my side. It's definitely from my side. Obviously there's a lot of respect from my side to Anett's game, personality.

“I think today I was just very close on taking that chance. I just wasted it. That's why it hurts so much. It's not that it was just bad luck, it's that I threw away another chance. It hurts.”

 

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