Greek tennis star Maria Sakkari has opened up on what it means to have embarked on an incredible journey at Roland-Garros along with compatriot and good friend Stefanos Tsitsipas.

While the 18th-ranked Sakkari reached the round-of-16 at the French Open, seeing off Belgian Elise Mertens in three sets, Tsitsipas, the current World No.5, thumped Pablo Carreno Busta of Spain in straight sets on Sunday to storm into the quarter-finals.

Greece has been toasting the strong runs of Maria Sakkari and Stefanos Tsitsipas

The Greek duo’s strong campaigns in the French capital have been met with unbridled joy back home and Sakkari acknowledged that saying that it fills her with a lot of pride to be carrying the Grecian flag at Roland-Garros along with Tsitsipas.

The official Roland-Garros Twitter page shared a post quoting Sakkari as saying that she realizes that millions at home are delighted to see a male and female player from Greece to be gunning for glory at Roland-Garros.

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“For Greek people I think it’s very nice to have, you know, a female and a male player competing in that level, and especially giving them a lot of joy. I think they are proud of us,” Sakkari said.

She added that she feeds off the success of her good friend, who has had a phenomenal campaign and has emerged as one of the tournament favorites on the back of some emphatic wins.

Sakkari has reached Round-4, Tsitsipas into quarter-finals

Sakkari, whose family is close to that of Tsitsipas, said she not only draws a lot of inspiration watching him taking down opponents but is also delighted to be standing by his side in this incredible journey at Roland-Garros.

“Stefanos inspires me a lot…It’s very very good and very important for me to just, you know, to be kind of like by his side in that journey,” she added.

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Coming into Paris on the back of a round-of-16 and a third-round finish in Madrid and Rome, Sakkari opened her campaign with a comfortable win over Katarina Zavatska of Ukraine and hasn’t looked back since.

She will play last year’s runners-up Sofia Kenin for a place in the quarter-finals on Monday.

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Tsitsipas, on the other hand, has dropped a set only once on his way to reaching the last-16 and will take on in-form World No.2 Daniil Medvedev for a place in the semis.