French Open 20238th seed Maria Sakkari knocked out after losing to Karolina Muchova in 1st round

By India Today Sports DeskWorld No.8 Maria Sakkari crashed out of the French Open 2023 after suffering a shocking defeat to World No. 43 Karolina Muchova in the women’s singles first round on Court Suzanne Lenglen on May 28.

Former Top 20 player Muchova, now rated No.43, defeated Sakkari by an almost similar scoreline in the French Open for the second year in a row. Muchova also defeated Sakkari in the second round last year in two tiebreak sets, and she now has a 3-1 advantage in their overall head-to-head.

Sakkari, who reached the Roland Garros quarterfinals two years ago, had a 15-1 win-loss record in Grand Slam first-round matches as a seeded player. However, the Greek was defeated in 2 hours and 6 minutes this time.

Muchova has never been past the third round at Roland Garros, but the 26-year-old has advanced far in other Grand Slam tournaments. Muchova reached the Australian Open semifinals in 2021 and is a two-time champion.

Muchova will meet former Roland Garros semifinalist Nadia Podoroska of Argentina in the second round for the second time in a row. Podoroska, who reached the Paris semifinals in 2020, defeated French wildcard Jessika Ponchet 6-0, 6-2 earlier in the day.