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There was plenty of drama when Maria Sakkari took on Karolina Pliskova in the Round of 16 at the ongoing BNP Paribas Open.
In the eighth game of the third set, Pliskova felt that Sakkari's racquet had touched one of her returns, which eventually went off the court. Video replays seemed to corroborate that, but the chair umpire didn't see the incident and Sakkari denied that the ball had touched her racquet. The point, therefore, was awarded to the Greek.
The incident has elicited calls for video replays to be used in the sport, as the tweets below indicate:
Although Pliskova won the game, it was Sakkari who eventually won the marathon clash 6-4, 5-7, 6-3. A no-look cold handshake at the net followed, as Pliskova was seemingly not happy with Sakkari's act.
Maria Sakkari to meet Petra Kvitova in Indian Wells quarterfinal
Maria Sakkari will go up against Petra Kvitova for a place in the semifinals at the BNP Paribas Open. She leads Kvitova in the head-to-head by a slender 4-3 margin.
The Greek won the duo's latest meeting, which came at the same venue 12 months ago.
Sakkari has won all her matches this week in three sets. She started by beating Shelby Rogers 2-6, 6-4, 6-0 before ousting Anhelina Kalinina 3-6, 6-2, 6-4.
Earlier, the World No. 7 threw some light on a mental slump that hampered her progress last season. Sakkari admitted that things got so so bad that she didn't want to be on the court.
"Yeah. I mean, last year there were a couple of weeks, maybe more. One of them was San Jose, I just couldn't be on the court. I wanted, but I couldn't. It's not like I was going on the court to tank the match. I didn't want to be there. It's just I couldn't. Madrid I was also struggling big time. I mean, there were a few, yes, and I'm a human being. I think I'm allowed also to have those weeks," she said after her win over Kalinina.
