JELENA OSTAPENKO had barely had time to soak in the joy of winning the French Open title here when her mind switched to Wimbledon, where she will arrive next month, for the first time, as a grand slam champion.
It was at Wimbledon three years ago that Ostapenko first enjoyed a bit of fame, winning the junior title there to signal her talent and big-match temperament.
But few would have thought that the Latvian, who turned 20 on Friday, would win a senior title so soon, and probably not at the French Open.
Her fearlessness and unrelenting willingness to go for it, hammering massive groundstrokes on both sides, were too much for Simona Halep in the final, a match in which the Romanian led by a set and 3-0.
But for the fourth time in the tournament, Ostapenko stormed back, hammering 54 winners in all to take her overall tally to a whopping 299, and denying Halep her first grand slam title.
It was a stunning end to a stunning fortnight, one of the biggest surprises in grand slam history with the world No 47 coming out on top.
And with the way she hits the ball, hard and flat, and the way she goes for broke, no matter what, there seems no reason why she shouldn’t prosper at Wimbledon, if she can handle the situation.
“I think it was like a step to the pro career,” she said. “To finish with the juniors, I think you have to at least win one grand slam then I think you are kind of ready to play in the pro circuit.
“The first year (of juniors) I did not really understand how to play on grass. I didn’t really like it. Then year-by-year I liked it more and more because I understood how to play on grass and now I love that surface.”
“It is a nice place and the surface, grass, really fits me so I am really looking forward to playing this year.”
Ostapenko is due to head home to Latvia today and she can expect a superb reception from the public, many of whom watched her victory in Paris on big screens in the capital city.
The country’s president was on the phone after her semi-final win and he will doubtless be there to see her when she returns, having become the first Latvian player to win a grand slam singles title.
“I think I expect a lot of attention from Latvia because I made history and this is a big day today for me,she said.
Asked if she thought she was virtually unbeatable when her game was firing at 100 percent, Ostapenko modestly said that there wasn’t anyone she thought was unbeatable.
Having joined the list of grand slam champions – the first unseeded woman to win the title in Paris in the open era – does she think she now belongs in the same breath as other champions, like Serena Williams?
“It’s difficult to compare me to Serena because she won so many grand slam titles and I won only one,” she said. “I hope there are more to come.”
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