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The Greek superstar Maria Sakkari was the definition of fitness goals just three weeks after 2021 and has exhausted her two-week quarantine in Melbourne with the unveiling of a training series entitled “Sparring with a Spartan”.
Armed with boundless energy, the world number 22 isn’t against pushing herself any further off the field this season, but don’t sign her up for a marathon just yet.
“I think what Caroline Wozniacki did was unreal,” she tells Baseline of the former number 1 who competed in the 2014 New York City Marathon. “She was and is a very good athlete. I could never do what she did.” It must have taken so much time and required a lot of running during a tournament. I think she was already fit, which obviously helped a lot. “
Sakkari, who prefers bodyweight and agility exercises, has yet to find her runner’s high, which is bad news for her as her fitness trainer George Panagiotopoulos is a former track and field athlete.
“When I’m in Greece, I run a lot, which I honestly don’t like,” she says. “It’s so tough and I had to do so much of it in the off-season and also during last spring’s lockdown. First I did some agility and mobility exercises, and then we started training more intensely in the parks and . ” Places like this. There was a lot of walking after that. “
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What keeps the 25-year-old moving? To paraphrase Elle Woods, it all depends on these happy endorphins.
“It’s something that not only makes my body beautiful, but also my soul,” she says. “I feel very good both during and after training, which is the most important thing.”
Sakkari had a big breakthrough at the 2020 Australian Open when she reached the second week of a Grand Slam tournament for the first time. She is already a semi-finalist to start the new season in Abu Dhabi. It will begin in Melbourne at the Grampians Trophy WTA 500, a tournament exclusively for hard-quarantined players.
