Former French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko will aim to move a step closer to her second grand slam final when she takes on Dominika Cibulkova in the quarter-finals at Wimbledon. Join The Roar for live scores from 10pm (AEST).
The 2017 run to the French Open crown came completely out of the blue for Ostapenko, who, despite staying ranked well – she is currently 12th with the same seeding number at Wimbledon – hasn’t again reached the heights of a grand slam success.
Her French Open this year, on what has fast become her favourite surface, couldn’t have ended in a more different manner to last year as she bombed out in the first round to Kateryna Kozlova.
The grass court swing has been more successful for Ostapenko though, who made the quarter-finals at Eastbourne and is yet to lose a set at the All England Club.
Even better than that, two of her last four sets have been served out to love, with only 23 games lost across the eight sets she has played at The Championships so far.
While Ostapenko is in great form, Cibulkova is yet to lose a set. Here lead-up form, which included a first-round and a second-round exit made you think she was in for an early exit at Wimbledon as well, but her performance has been anything but poor.
Eight straight sets is impressive, although dulled down slightly when you look at the level of opponents.
Still, wins over Johanna Konta – no matter how out of form – and the powerful Elise Mertens leave her in a very good way ahead of this quarter-final.
Prediction
This match is tough to tip. The power of Cibulkova makes her dangerous, but Ostapenko has experience winning big matches at this stage of a grand slam. I expect her to get the job done.
Ostapenkoa in three sets.
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