Jeļena Ostapenko (click to enlarge)
In 2016, Jeļena Ostapenko lost in the first round of every Major. What a difference a year makes. The 20 year old Latvian blasted 50-plus winners again to come back from a set and 0-3 down to defeat Simona Halep and win Roland Garros 2017, 4-6 6-4 6-3. Going into the match, Jeļena was winless in three WTA finals. She becomes the first player to make a Major their first title since Gustavo Kuerten won Roland Garros on June 8, 1997. That happens to be the day Ostapenko was born. She is the first unseeded player to reach the women’s final since Mima Jausovec in 1983 and the first unseeded woman to win since Margaret Scriven in 1933, when only 8 players were seeded. Jeļena won’t need to worry about seeding at Wimbledon as her Roland Garros win will propel her ranking from 47 to 12. Her bank account will also rise. She entered Paris with $1,288,260 in career prize money. Her win on Saturday earned her a little more than $2.3 million. She is the first Latvian Major winner. Ostapenko certainly has the firepower to keep winning. The key is controlling her errors. She is a winner machine, but also an unforced error machine. However, the talk about how she will do moving forward can wait for another day. Let the 20 year old enjoy what she has accomplished.
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JEĻENA OSTAPENKO d. 3 Simona Halep, 4-6 6-4 6-3
Fairways and Forehands 