Maria Sakkari defeated Nao Hibino in the second round of the WTA 500 tournament in Singapore on hard courts, 7-5, 6-1. The win sent the seventh seed into the quarterfinals.
The first set went down to the wire
In the opening set, Sakkari and Hibino reached a tight finish, with the decisive stretch coming at 5-5. Sakkari won the next two games and closed out the set 7-5.
In the second set, the score quickly moved in Sakkari's favor. After a first set that was level in format, the match ended much sooner: the Greek won the set 6-1 and completed a 2:0 victory.
According to api.tennis, Sakkari fired 9 aces to Hibino's 1, while both players had 4 double faults. On first serve, Sakkari won 26 points out of 36, Hibino 21 out of 36. Sakkari also held the edge on breaks: 4 converted from 11 chances against 1 from 4. The total points were 69:52, and the match lasted 84 minutes.
Earlier in the tournament, Sakkari had beaten Linda Fruhvirtova 6-4, 6-1. Hibino opened with a win over Kristina Mladenovic, 7-5, 3-6, 6-4. In their head-to-head, Sakkari leads 2:0: in 2024 she won 6-4, 6-1, and in 2026 by 7-5, 6-1.