ATP Tour

Recharged Tsitsipas, Sakkari power Greece past Japan in Perth

After a challenging 2025 season, Stefanos Tsitsipas launched his 2026 campaign on a positive note on Friday at the United Cup in Perth, where he guided Greece to a confident opening victory over Japan.

Following Maria Sakkari’s commanding straight-sets win over Naomi Osaka to give Greece the early advantage, Tsitsipas sealed the tie with an assertive 6-3, 6-4 victory over Shintaro Mochizuki. Playing his first match since last September after a back injury layoff, the former World No. 3 recovered from an early break to take control and deliver a composed performance for the 2023 semi-finalists.

“It’s been a rough few months for me,” Tsitsipas said. “I was in a lot of uncertainty and I was not sure if I could really compete, so to see myself at that level again and showing some really good tennis is something I’m grateful for. Let’s keep it going.”

After his second round upset by Matteo Gigante at Roland Garros last year, Tsitsipas dropped outside the Top 20 of the PIF ATP Rankings for the first time since August 2018. The former Nitto ATP Finals champion struggled with a back injury and also worked with Goran Ivanisevic for two months before rehiring his father Apostolos.

But in his first match of the season, Tsitsipas looked refreshed and purposeful, striking the ball with conviction in his first Lexus ATP Head2Head meeting with the 22-year-old Mochizuki, the World No. 99.

Tsitsipas, once a Top 10 staple, currently occupies the World No. 36 spot and he has targeted a return to a major final in 2026, having previously reached that stage at Roland Garros in 2021 and the Australian Open in 2023.

Earlier, Sakkari shook off any lingering disappointment from last year’s round-robin exit and powered Greece to a fast start, earning a marquee straight-sets win over four-time Grand Slam champion and world No. 16 Osaka.

Facing Osaka for the first time in nearly five years, the former world No. 3 jumpstarted Greece’s opening tie against Japan with a 6-4, 6-2 victory in 1 hour and 38 minutes at RAC Arena, fueled by quick starts in both sets.

Beware the SakkAttack 💥@mariasakkari gives Team Greece the perfect start in Perth. pic.twitter.com/2O0YqufDOc

— United Cup (@UnitedCupTennis) January 2, 2026

Sakkari struck first in the opener, racing out to a 2-0 lead with a hold and an early break in Osaka’s opening service game. Osaka broke back immediately, but Sakkari reclaimed the advantage and closed out the set, painting the line with a backhand winner to set up a third set point, which she would promptly convert.

"You're always very hesitant when you come in that first match because sometimes you can trick yourself that you had a good preseason, and then you have high expectations to come out and do everything," Sakkari said to reporters after the match.

"I really forced myself not to think like that. I think that that was the key. Just went out there, tried to do the things that I worked on and, you know, we keep building and we can keep trying to improve."

Sakkari struck first in the opener, racing out to a 2-0 lead with a hold and an early break in Osaka’s opening service game. Osaka broke back immediately, but Sakkari reclaimed the advantage and closed out the set, painting the line with a backhand winner to set up a third set point, which she would promptly convert.

"[There were] a lot of backhand winners, but a lot of backhand errors as well," Sakkari said. "I have to allow myself to miss in order for me to make a lot of winners. It was all about who was going to take the back hand line, let's be honest. It was all about who was going to get that good cross-court ball in order to get down the line."

The second set opened with the two trading holds before Sakkari erased two break points for a 2-1 lead. She then managed to break Osaka again to move in front 3-1, and she maintained control from there, sealing her third win in six meetings with Osaka to even their head-to-head and, more importantly, give Greece a 1-0 lead in its tie against Japan.