Krejcikova beats Sakkari in Athens for a first title since Wimbledon 2024

Two years. That is how long it had been since Barbora Krejcikova's last tour title, at Wimbledon in 2024, before she beat Maria Sakkari 7-6(5) 6-3 in Sunday's Athens Open final for her ninth career title, won on Sakkari's home court, and one that pushes her head-to-head with Sakkari to 3-0.

Both players are 30, seeded three and four, and there was almost nothing between them: Krejcikova won 64 points to Sakkari's 60 of 124 played, four apart. Sakkari served with more power, five aces to two, but far less accuracy, landing 49 percent of first serves to Krejcikova's 68, and it cost her on the return: Krejcikova won 3 of her 10 return games to Sakkari's 2 of 11, and 9 of her 11 service games to Sakkari's 7 of 10.

The first set turned on two swings and a tiebreak. Krejcikova was broken to trail 1-3, broke straight back for 3-4, and neither could find another break through 6-6, when Krejcikova won the tiebreak 7-5. The second set followed the same pattern at higher speed: broken again to 1-2, she broke back for 2-2, broke a second time for 5-3, and served out the title on her first match point, the only one of the match; Sakkari never reached one of her own. Both players converted every break point they created, three of three for Krejcikova and two of two for Sakkari, but it was that extra break in the second set, never answered, that turned a tiebreak scare into a straight-sets win.

The win is Krejcikova's ninth career title and her first since Wimbledon 2024, against six finals lost along the way; her toughest test of the week came in the semi-final, a 6-1 4-6 6-3 win over top seed Clara Tauson in which a one-set lead slipped away before she closed it out in three. For Sakkari, playing in front of her home crowd, it is a third defeat by Krejcikova without a win, after a 7-6 second set in Dubai and a 9-7 final set in the 2021 Roland Garros semi-final, and she stays at two career titles, from Rabat in 2019 and Guadalajara in 2023. The head-to-head is now 3-0; Sakkari is still looking for her first win over Krejcikova.

Match tale, 19 July 2026, sources: Athens Open, api-tennis