{"id":954138,"date":"2026-11-01T08:36:09","date_gmt":"2026-11-01T08:36:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/954138\/"},"modified":"2026-11-01T08:36:09","modified_gmt":"2026-11-01T08:36:09","slug":"sakkari-in-hong-kong-i-dont-want-to-be-obsessed-with-the-ranking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/954138\/","title":{"rendered":"Sakkari in Hong Kong: \u201cI don\u2019t want to be obsessed with the ranking\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

The former WTA Finals<\/a> regular, now ranked No. 30, has spent 2026 away from the ranking she once held, and she says she has stopped checking it. \u201cIt\u2019s tough because I always feel like I want to get back to where I was,\u201d she said. \u201cBut I also don\u2019t want to be obsessed with looking at the ranking every single week right now. I\u2019m just very happy with the way I\u2019m playing, and the way I\u2019m just handling every match.\u201d<\/p>\n

The number still matters for one practical reason. \u201cIt\u2019s only important to get into tournaments and probably be seeded in most of them,\u201d she said. \u201cBut other than that, it\u2019s amazing to be doing what I\u2019m doing today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sakkari back in Hong Kong, ten years after Kerber<\/p>\n

Her 10-year absence from Hong Kong came down to the schedule. \u201cThe calendar played a little bit differently, so I didn\u2019t have the opportunity, as it didn\u2019t fit my schedule,\u201d Sakkari said. \u201cBut I felt like this year was a great time to come back, especially after getting all that amazing feedback from the rest of the players, especially about the food. I just felt like it\u2019s a great opportunity to come back and see Hong Kong once again and play in front of this crowd.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 2016 match against Kerber stays with her. \u201cMy game style has changed quite a bit,\u201d she said. \u201cI remember I came here and I played Kerber. She was either a top five or top ten player back then, and I just cracked the top hundred. For me, it was playing one of the legends of the game, and that was probably one of the first times I played in a stadium like that, so it was a great opportunity back then.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut a lot, a lot of things have changed,\u201d she added. \u201cI\u2019ve played some of my best tennis up until today, and I\u2019m very proud if I think of where I was ten years ago and where I am today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sakkari\u2019s draw in Hong Kong<\/p>\n

Sakkari opens against a qualifier, with fifth seed Talia Gibson<\/a> the biggest name in her section before a possible semifinal against second seed Alexandra Eala<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The former WTA Finals regular, now ranked No. 30, has spent 2026 away from the ranking she once…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":954139,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,82,593],"class_list":["post-954138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/954138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=954138"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/954138\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/954139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=954138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=954138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=954138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}