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20-year-old unseeded Latvian Jelena Ostapenko has recorded a remarkable achievement, victorious in the French Open final against Simona Halep against all the odds.
» Click here to read the full match report
Final score
Jelena Ostapenko 3 6 6
Simona Halep 6 4 3
Women’s tennis prepares for a new Grand Slam champion as Simona Halep and Jelena Ostapenko do battle for the French Open title. Join The Roar for live scores and updates from 11pm (AEST).
For the first time since the 2002 Australian Open, neither Serena Williams nor Maria Sharapova have featured in a Grand Slam tournament, and their absence has afforded an opportunity for a number of players to seize control of the women’s game for the years to come.
Third-seeded Halep has been nipping at the heels of the world’s best players since making her first Slam final at the 2014 French Open (losing to Sharapova), but the 25-year old has often frustrated fans with plenty of early exits from major tournaments.
Clay is her best surface, however, and Halep has displayed some of her best form in the past fortnight, easing through the early rounds before surviving a pair of major scares against Elina Svitolina and Karolina Pliskova in the quarter- and semi-finals.
A set and 5-1 down against Svitolina, the Romanian produced one of the comebacks of the tournament to win twelve of the last thirteen games to clinch the match, before knocking out the highly fancied second seed Pliskova in the final four, again in three sets.
With Australian coach Darren Cahill back in her camp after the pair briefly split after this year’s Miami Open, Halep will not only secure her first Grand Slam title with a victory, but will also clinch the world No.1 ranking for the first time in her career.
At just 20 years of age, Jelena Ostapenko is a newbie on the professional tennis circuit – but she is already being touted as a star on the rise.
Ranked world No.47 prior to the tournament, Ostapenko is looking to become the first unseeded Grand Slam champion on either circuit since Kim Clijsters in 2009, and with stirring victories over Samantha Stosur, Caroline Wozniacki and Timea Bacsinszky en route to the final, the Latvian’s attacking mindset and ferocious forehand has served her well this tournament.
Her semi-final triumph over Bacsinszky – on her 20th birthday, no less – showcased her mental fortitude, the inexperienced Ostapenko holding her nerve after Bacsinszky levelled things up at a set apiece to win the decider and secure her maiden Grand Slam final berth.
Prediction
Ostapenko hasn’t yet played a top-ten seeded player this tournament, so Halep’s victories over 5th-seeded Svitolina and 2nd-seeded Pliskova indicate the Romanian is the player in better form.
But Ostapenko’s forehand is a powerful weapon – her average speed of 76 miles per hour this tournament is higher than men’s world No. 1 Andy Murray – and in a match set to go down to the wire, that could be decisive.
Ostapenko in an upset in 3 sets.
Join The Roar for live scores and analysis of the match from 11pm (AEST), and don’t forget to leave us your thoughts in the comments section below.
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