NEW YORK — Under oppressive heat and before a thick crowd, Maria Sakkari picked up her racquet here and said she tried not to pay attention to the throngs of fans back home in Greece rooting for her. In her first draw in the U.S. Open women’s singles competition, she had to face off against Qiang Wang of China. Sakkari entered the tournament ranked 207th, Wang 112th.
It was Sakkari’s first-ever U.S. Open and first-ever appearance at a Grand Slam. Having fought for her spot through the qualification matches last week, she is the lone Greek athlete — man or woman — in the tournament at a time when her country could use some good news.
“I’m the only Greek in many tournaments,” Sakkari, 20, said, with a sigh.
By most accounts, Greece is something of a disaster, unlikely to reverse political or economic course anytime soon. In June, Greece became the first developed country to fail to make an IMF loan repayment. The government’s debt tally is north of €3 billion. Roughly a quarter of Greeks are unemployed and those who are working are doing so on fallen wages. The political theater surrounding it all continues to offer headlines worldwide that veer between distressing and dismal.
The Greek fiscal woes have had repercussions for Sakkari. The already-challenging economics of pursing professional tennis were made harder by a lack of interest from sponsors, of which Sakkari has none. She said that her career is currently being entirely funded by her father, a path that may not continue to be sustainable.
“It’s quite impossible to have a sponsor at this point,” she said. “That’s the situation we’ve reached. I hope I can get one.”
Greece’s history in sports is storied, most notably being the birthplace of the Olympic Games. But it has only produced a handful of tennis players. (After a hiatus, tennis returned to the Olympics in 1988.) With the economy in a free fall and the launching of a professional tennis career still costing tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars in coaching, travel and equipment, Sakkari may likely remain an outlier for some time.
“I love my country,” she said. “I’m proud of it. I wish there were more athletes because it would be better for my country.”
When it comes to courtside chatter about the Greek economy, on the tour “everybody is asking me about it,” she said. “I don’t like to talk about it. It makes me feel bad. I don’t want my country to be in that situation, but I think Greece is going to be back again. I think it’s going to be a good economic situation soon. I hope, because it’s been a tough situation for us.”
Athens-born Sakkari said she started playing tennis as a child after seeing her older brother play. (Their mother, Angelikí Kanellopoúlou, too, played the sport on the professional tour.) Sakkari’s brother stopped playing, but she continued. She said she played her first tournament when she was 15.
“I didn’t expect to pass the [qualifying rounds], to tell you the truth,” she said. When she turned on her phone after winning her berth in the women’s singles tournament, she said she was flooded with notifications from hundreds of friends and fans back in Greece. “I knew from the beginning it was going to be tough. I was not fresh. Then I came here and started winning my matches and getting confidence, so I think I deserved it.”
Yet that confidence didn’t carry her through on Tuesday. Her mother, brother and coach were in the stands, and Sakkari didn’t hesitate to look or yell in their direction between points as she struggled to keep up with Wang, losing in two sets, 7-5, 6-2.
“It was my first Grand Slam and I was a bit stressed,” she said. “I was a bit tired and I made many mistakes I don’t normally do. I think I was missing more than usual and I didn’t have to.”
When she stepped off the court, there wasn’t a ceremonious press conference. There were no inquiries from reporters, Greek or otherwise. Just a shower and a shuttle back to midtown. She said she hopes to return next year and isn’t sure whether she will head back to Greece, Spain or another tournament when she leaves New York. Her phone pinged constantly with alerts from those watching back home. She glanced at them, but had yet to dig in.
“I haven’t checked them,” she said. “I feel bad because many people watched me today through live stream and I didn’t make them happy. I wanted to win. I wanted to make them happy. I think next time, I will have the chance.”
Mary Pilon, formerly of the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, is the author of “The Monopolists” (Bloomsbury, 2015). She is a regular contributor to POLITICO.