While it may come as a surprise that 20-year-old Jelena Ostapenko is in the finals of Roland Garros, by way of today’s three set win over Timea Bacsinszky, the young Latvian has shown consistent career results in the glamour events.
Ostapenko won the 2014 Wimbledon junior event. In 2015 she beat no. 9 seed Carla Saurez Navarro at Wimbledon, losing only two games.
Last year the bubbly teen continued her gradual ascent by reaching the semifinals of the Wimbledon mixed doubles with partner Olivier Marach (lost to Kontinen and Watson the eventual champions).
Also in 2016 at Aegon, Ostapenko beat Petra Kvitova and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.
This year Ostapenko began working with two time Roland Garros doubles champ Anna Medina Garrigues and the partnership paid quick dividends. Ostapenko made the third round in Melbourne and served for the match vs Karolina Pliskova but lost in three sets.
She rebounded to win the St Petersburg doubles title with Rosolska.
The best singles result of Ostapenko’s career came in April in Charleston where she beat Wozniacki and Lucic Baroni to make the finals where she lost to Daria Kasatkina. This effort placed Ostapenko into the WTA top fifty.
In Paris Ostapenko has rolled all the way to the final and is just one win away from making tennis history as the first Latvian to win a Grand Slam singles title (Larisa Savchenko Neiland won the French Open and Wimbledon in 1989 and 1991 and represented Latvia though she was born in Ukraine).
But in Ostapenko’s path will be no 3 seed and former Roland Garros finalist Simona Halep, who showed incredible defensive skills and retrieving abilities in dispatching Pliskova in three sets.
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« Previous 1 2 3 4 Next »Andrew Miller · June 9, 2017 at 5:11 pm
Wawrinka in slam finals: 3-0.
Andrew Miller · June 9, 2017 at 5:20 pm
Fritz loves hard courts. Like I’ve said before I may personally be negative on a pro’s chances, like Fritz, or positive, like Kosakowski, but it’s those players who are the ones that go toe to toe. Kosakowski, who rode his backhand into the Indian Wells tournament, got injured and hasn’t been the same since. Klahn, who out hustled and out competed everyone from Harrison to Sock on down on his way to second highest ranked player in the USA at #67 in February 2014, is now somewhere in the triple digits. Harrison, who was left for peanuts last year, is revived and remains tougher than ever. And Simona Halep is in another slam final!
I think our doomsday views sometimes are on the mark such as how soon Djokovic will stop his slide, I think everyone noticed his drop off pretty early. And off the mark too. Like my belief a USA player would make a semifinal of a slam, which didn’t happen. Close but no cigar.
Henk · June 9, 2017 at 6:09 pm
Andrew: Rafa in Roland Garros finals 9-0.
Rafa vs Stan on clay 5-1, overall 15-3
Scoop Malinowski · June 9, 2017 at 6:57 pm
Rafa totally destroyd poor Thiem who got off to a good start but could not convert his early chances and really should have been up a break or two in first set but was down 1-3 instead. THiem just could never get comfortable and that's due to Rafa's fine play. Again it looks like Stan is playing incredible and I think will win but Rafa just finds a way to negate this heavy hitters. Still I expect a much more formidable threat by Stan on Sunday and Rafa will have to be at his very best to subdue this Swiss beast.
Andrew Miller · June 9, 2017 at 7:11 pm
Stan isn’t the same in slam finals. He becomes superman.
Scoop Malinowski · June 9, 2017 at 7:28 pm
I think Stan will be extra motivated also because of Rafa's perceived fake injury after losing the first set in the Aus Open final which really put a weird damper on the whole match after the first set which showcased some of Stan's greatest tennis. Actually up to that point of his career it was probably the best tennis Stan had ever played. I think Stan will be extra inspired to show Rafa his very best tennis.
catherine · June 10, 2017 at 5:38 am
Hartt-
Saw Raonic had split with coach – was this a recent decision ?
Milos seems to go through coaches fastish.
Hartt · June 10, 2017 at 6:31 am
Catherine,
Re Raonic and split with Krajicek.the decision was announced on Thursday, by Milos on twitter, with the usual it was a mutual decision. They formally started to work together last December, so it looks like one of those cases where the coaching relationship did not work The fact that Krajicek was not at RG was a sign something was amiss.
Milos and Piatti have worked together for some time now and I think that is the most important thing. Although Milos has been unfortunate with both Ljubicic and Moya leaving for greener fields.
catherine · June 10, 2017 at 6:45 am
Thanks.
Must be difficult though parting with a coach and W’don coming up. But Milos must have decided this move was the best for him.
Hartt · June 10, 2017 at 7:32 am
Yes, you have to think that his Wimbledon experience was one reason Milos wanted to work with Krajicek. But if Milos can avoid a big injury or illness that will be the main thing right now. Piatti said Milos’ ROS (his main weakness) has improved, he just needs to be more aggressive with it, so I hope that is working.
All of Milos’ coaches have said he is very coachable, willing to try what the coach suggests. And of course he works extremely hard, one problem for his team is to keep him from overdoing it. I understand why Ljubicic would want to work with Federer and Moya with Rafa, especially since they were friends in both cases. But I suspect both would have stayed with Milos if not for these great opportunities.
On another topic, just saw the press conferences with Simona and Jelena. Simona gave thoughtful answers, acknowledging there is pressure but being ready for the match. Jelena seemed relaxed, smiled and laughed, but gave very brief answers. She does, much to my delight, like to read. “detectives” as she calls them.
Scoop Malinowski · June 10, 2017 at 8:03 am
Well that is a surprise that Raonic has split with Krajicek I would guess no chemistry. Or Raonic feels he is ready to win Wimbledon without any help.
catherine · June 10, 2017 at 8:05 am
Don’t know why the players have to give these pointless pre-match press conferences – an unnecessary distraction and isn’t going to yield useful information ie ‘yeah, right I’m scared ******** and I’m going to lose’…
Jelena joins Angie K in reading ‘detectives’ – of course Angie’s got plenty of time to read now unfortunately.
Jelena should just go out there and hit from the start – get rid of the nerves and forget who she’s playing.
There was a player, can’t remember which one, who estimated her chances against Navratilova by the number of times Martina looked at her friends’/coach’s box.
Jelena can count the times Simona telepathises with Cahill 🙂
Scoop Malinowski · June 10, 2017 at 8:40 am
Catherine; these press conferences result in a ton of press around the world as just about all the big dailies and web sites will run stories with the quotes. These press conferences serve as excellent promotion though the actual quotes are usually pretty bland.
catherine · June 10, 2017 at 11:33 am
Ostepenko – yes, really !!!!
kiu · June 10, 2017 at 11:37 am
Yeah!
Henk · June 10, 2017 at 11:41 am
Fully deserved win! Let’s hope this will be her definitive breakthrough.
catherine · June 10, 2017 at 11:45 am
Great effort from a young player who kept her head and also kept control of the match after the first set.
Very impressive.
And now don’t do a Muguruza – please ?
Henk · June 10, 2017 at 11:48 am
Absolutely Catherine! She will move into the 20 on Monday, very close to breaking into the top 10. She could do well at Wimbledon too.
catherine · June 10, 2017 at 12:01 pm
I always have a feeling with Simona that can succumb to sustained aggression at vital points in a match.
She also refers to herself,in her speech, as ‘we’ – if she really means that then she is still way too dependent on her coach and should be talking about ‘I’ – it’s the ‘I’ that will win titles for her.
Hartt · June 10, 2017 at 12:07 pm
Well, that was a surprise. The fearlessness of youth.
Speaking of youth, Andreescu and Brandstine just won their 2nd girls’ Slam title after winning the AO title this year. Sounds like an easy win, think it was 6-1, 6-3 over a Russian team. This may be the end of juniors for Bianca Andreescu who turns 17 on June 16. she said she will play some upcoming Challengers and the qualies for Wimbledon.
So the men’s doubles final is about to begin. Who to root for? Cannot decide.
Andrew Miller · June 10, 2017 at 12:14 pm
Scoop called it. Yes, Ostapenko, really. I was worried that unrivaled aggression would win out and that’s what happened. I noticed Ostapenko has the inner brat in her psyche, an essential ingredient for the cocktail that makes up a champion.
So well done Jelena Ostapenko. Out of nowhere, Roland Garros champion.
And for Simona Halep. This was Novotna material. Or Ivanisevic material. I’d hope she signs up for some more dubs so she has more chances for hoisting championship trophies. She steeled her nerves and then they undid her, and Ostapenko ripped the trophy and glory from her.
Ostapenko pulled off a major feat here. For now it seems like a result similar to when Majoli won and ousted Hingis, with Simona playing Hingis for a day. But you never know, she seems to have some of Azarenka in her, a thirst for winning and more poise than the vets around her.
Andrew Miller · June 10, 2017 at 12:16 pm
I predict an early exit at Wimbledon. Even though I’m no good at predictions, the high of winning and the new X that just formed on her as a worthy opponent to beat are formidable obstacles. Just ask Muguruza.
Andrew Miller · June 10, 2017 at 12:28 pm
3-0 in set two for Halep. With several chances to go up 4-0. That’s not a great showing. It wasn’t as if Ostapenko was firing up aces out there.
I’m sorry for Halep. She’ll have to impose her game more either to go up 40-15 more often or nail down those service breaks when she gets a good look.
This was a moment where the vet forget she was a vet.
Andrew Miller · June 10, 2017 at 12:29 pm
All credit to Ostapenko for playing 3-0 down as if it was an entirely new match. That’s got some Nadal in him.
Andrew Miller · June 10, 2017 at 12:32 pm
I meant Ostapenko did things that Nadal also does. In Scoop’s terms, Ostapenko played those points with more intensity. Showed some serious inner fire and shared that with the Paris crowd. Courage for sure. And it doesn’t say as much for poor Simona. I don’t know why Halep hit the ball right back to Ostapenko. What the heck.
Front242 · June 10, 2017 at 12:37 pm
Labi labi :clap:
catherine · June 10, 2017 at 1:03 pm
I cannot fathom Simona – either she is technically stuck forever in defensive mode and can’t pull anything else out when she’s at 30-0 eg or she’s just at a loss what to do, mentally. She hesitates. And before you know it’s all over.
As Andrew says, she has to impose herself. It’s not happening. She got lots of shots but she’s not using them. The energy wasn’t there today.
I’m still not convinced by Cahill. After all that guff about how he encouraged belief in herself, positive thinking etc where was that v Ostapenko ?
What kind of preparation did she do ?
Yes – Jelena will probably go out early at W’don. Not unusual.
Hartt · June 10, 2017 at 3:55 pm
Could not find where we were talking about the men’s final so will post this here. Congrats to Ryan Harrison and Michael Venus for the win. Commie said that Venus was the first GS winner from New Zealand. It was a close match, although must confess I was not paying close attention. Score was 7-6, 6-7, 6-3. I do remember Donald Young making 2 double faults in one key game, which did not help the Gonzalez/Young cause. Anyway, a nice win for Harrison and his partner.
Andrew Miller · June 10, 2017 at 5:39 pm
Wow, Harrison wins a major doubles slam. Huge result for both Harrison and Venus and DY and Gonzalez. And a big filler up for Harrison entering the grass season. That’s the best way to make up for a bad singles event. Winning is winning. It’s the only thing that cures losing.
Scoop Malinowski · June 10, 2017 at 6:05 pm
Wow what a win for Ostapenko though I did not see it yet as I was playing an Open in West Milford (won 6261 vs a 4.5 player) and I heard a voice during the match say Ostapenko won but I will watch the final later and share observations later.
Scoop Malinowski · June 10, 2017 at 6:13 pm
Proud to say that I called Ostapenko in April. This comment was made in the Halep Biofile which I posted in April. Ironic that Ostapenko beat Halep for her first GS… Submitted on 2017/04/09 at 9:37 am | In reply to catherine bell. Jelena Ostapenko of Ukraine is just what the WTA needs – a super talented ball crusher who shows a lot of joy and happiness on the court and laughs at her silly errors – I will call it right now Ostapenko will win GSs and be top five soon -Check her out today in the Charleston final vs Kasatkina –
catherine · June 10, 2017 at 6:28 pm
People have commented on Simona’s grunting and yelling in this match and it’s true I don’t remember her doing that not so long ago. She was a fairly quiet player.
Is this another one of Cahill’s bright ideas ?
Chazz · June 10, 2017 at 8:09 pm
Halep was in control of the match at 6-4, 3-0 and then Ostapenko started her surge. There was a critical point, I don’t remember in what game in the 2nd set that Halep gave Ostapenko by overruling the line call. At the time Halep was up 40-0 and she then proceeded to lose the game. It was a classy move but ended up costing her the game. That could have changed the result of the 2nd set if she hadn’t been nice enough to do that. There was also a lack of emotion from Simona, while Jelena was her usual intense, pouty and celebratory self. I also felt like if Simona could have mixed things up a bit with drop shots when the tide started to turn she could have kept Ostapenko off balance a bit, but we saw none of that. I wonder if we’ll ever see someone ranked as low as #47 winning a Slam. It’s remarkable.
Andrew Miller · June 10, 2017 at 8:52 pm
Yes Scoop called it. Like Chazz I noticed a lot of pouty in Miss Ostapenko. And she indeed crushed the ball. And Hakep’s exhale grunts are unfortunate.
I don’t know why Halep dialed it down. This was her match and her level dropped and Ostapenko’s rose twice, at 0-3 down and at 2-3 down in the final set. Then she put the pedal to the medal.
Maybe another match where one player won it. I don’t think Halep choked it away, I think she played safe at the wrong moments and let her opponent back in a match rather than shutting the door on her.
No I’m not in love with Ostapenko’s game. Good serve like Muguruza(not Serena or Sharpie) and aggressive Azarenka-like ball striking. But lots of courage. Reminds me of team Genie Bouchard from a few years ago when she was making semifinals and slam finals.
Well done though and a tip of the hat. A player must win a slam, they cant have it handed to them and Ostapenko did that.
Andrew Miller · June 10, 2017 at 8:55 pm
Chazz is right it wouldn’t have hurt Halep to slow the momentum down with a dropper or something else. Once the Ostapenko machine got going it must have been demoralizing for her, as in oh no here we go again. That’s how she lost other titles this Spring, even when she outplayed her opponents for the most part.
Duke Carnoustie · June 10, 2017 at 9:45 pm
Taylor Fritz goes down again in his first match of Stuttgart qualifying. The wheels have officially fallen off.
Favorable draw for Stevie Johnson. This is is where he started to roll a year ago. I wonder if he went back to the States first given everything that has gone on.
Popcorn first-rounder in s-Hertogenbosch: Escobedo v. Hyeon Chung!
Meanwhile in Nottingham we have a Mmoh v. Opelka first-round tilt on tap.
Duke Carnoustie · June 10, 2017 at 9:49 pm
And I have been riding with Stanimal all tournament long. But not on Sunday. I’ll be impressed if he gets a set.
Soderling and Djoker will remain the only RG conquerors of the mighty Nadal.
Chazz · June 10, 2017 at 10:36 pm
Andrew, I actually like Ostapenko’s pouting. She has a big personality on the court. Her interviews are fairly lacking in depth but that may be because she keeps it simple due to limited English. I also like her game in a similar way I like Warwinka’s when he’s spraying winners all over the place. Although she’s more of a high risk high reward player than Wawrinka, they both have moments in their best matches where you feel like they are completely overwhelming their opponent with power and angles.
Duke, if Fritz doesn’t qualify for Wimbledon, his decision to fully skip clay season and train seems like a terrible decision. I like what I’ve seen of him in the past, so right now it looks like a waste of talent. He should be in the top 100, not sub-130.
HADAJUN( Japanese) · June 10, 2017 at 10:41 pm
Expectations of players.
Chazz · June 10, 2017 at 10:42 pm
Someone mentioned the doubles final. I caught some of it, Harrison and Venus look like an awesome doubles team to me. Both have great serves and hit with a lot of power. This might not be a fluke title. They could be multiple Slam winners. I kind of felt bad for Young because who knows if he’ll ever get this close to a Slam title again.
Andrew Miller · June 10, 2017 at 11:13 pm
Chazz Ostapenko Wawrinka is a good comparison, though Wawrinka is more polished with a cleaner game to my eye. But she crushed the ball.
Know what and it pains me to say this, the wta has unraveled. It’s stars are now on the backburner and it all has happened so fast. Serena Williams might come back hungry to win but it will be different for her, and Sharapova is clearly not herself just yet and may not shake it off fast enough to be competitive at slams soon. Kvitova is just getting back and only a sentimental favorite. And Kerber is MIA. Kuznetsova is streaky streaky.
So Ostapenko, taking after Pennetta, has ripped the wta wide open.
I thought this would happen on the men’s tour, but the big five still have a say here. It’s becoming more clear that the wta has unraveled and Ostapenko has discovered she too has a say in who is royalty on the wta tour.
So big four big five still very alive. And the wta is just a guessing game!
Andrew Miller · June 10, 2017 at 11:16 pm
Fritz blew up his grass season so far. But maybe he’s refreshed and ready to lose close matches. Which is still losing.
I question all Fritz. But he’s got a say here. I’d recommend he play some world team tennis and get some fans. He’s going to sink without having some more help at tournaments. Fritz versus the world isn’t going well and it won’t for now. He needs what every player needs. More matches, better coaching, friends and fans. Rinse and repeat.
Chazz · June 10, 2017 at 11:38 pm
Absolutely, Andrew. Wawrinka is far more polished than Ostapenko. I just think their highs are similar in that their opponents basically become helpless to their barrage of winners. I do wonder if she has staying power and will become a mainstay in Slam finals or whether she just got on a hot streak and took advantage of an up and down field.
catherine · June 11, 2017 at 2:48 am
Chazz (and others)
I also noticed Simona didn’t try dropshots, one of her strengths, and she made no obvious attempt to slow the pace down and mix it up, a winning strategy against power players, even Serena on occasion. Simona has those shots – eg she has a great sliced forehand dropshot which used against Kerber at W’don last year. Not the same surface of course, but there’s more in her armoury than running, retrieving and hitting from feet beyond the baseline.
And if anyone was playing ‘in the moment’ it was Jelena, she simply put aside those crucial lost points and kept on swinging.
So we’ll be back to OCC for Simona. And by the way I thought Agassi’s quote on Cahill/Simona – ‘Cahill ‘loves’ Halep’ was really odd and didn’t sound quite right. Cahill’s not her friend, he’s her coach and should maintain some objectivity.
Jelena may indeed have had her moment in the sun and sink back to the ranks of the promising for a time but no matter, she did her job at RG and made Simona, as she herself admitted, seem a ‘spectator in my own match’ at important moments.
catherine · June 11, 2017 at 2:57 am
Sharapova out of Wimbledon and grass court tournaments (injury).
Will next play at Stanford.
WTA still wide open.
Scoop Malinowski · June 11, 2017 at 7:22 am
Kozlov vs D Brown in S-Hertogenbosch is another entertaining match.
Andrew Miller · June 11, 2017 at 11:46 am
Nadal demolished Wawrinka. Stan a doormat to Nadal’s destiny with slam #15. No Djokovic in sight.
Hartt · June 11, 2017 at 12:16 pm
I think Rafa would have demolished anyone today, the way he was playing. Even when Stan put together a couple good shots Rafa answered with a brilliant one. Although Rafa was awesome today, such a one-sided match is not entertaining. I enjoyed the women’s final more – the outcome was in doubt until the end.
catherine · June 11, 2017 at 12:26 pm
I think Stan was exhausted, physically, mentally, after his match v Murray although that probably didn’t affect the outcome, maybe the score.
Nadal knew he had the upper hand and played accordingly.
And it’s his home turf.
Andrew Miller · June 11, 2017 at 2:53 pm
Was the women’s final outcome truly in doubt? Just asking 🙂
Nadal stopped “owning” the French Open a few years ago. To Nadal’s credit he kept getting better, for the umpteenth time in the last 12 years, after losses lead up to his favorite tournament. He’s done it different ways in different years and with a slightly different cast of coaches every time.
To Moyas credit here is Nadal again with the French title. Maybe Moya was more significant to Raonic than we think.