Thought grass courts were for football: Jelena

PARIS: French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko will head to Wimbledon as the sport’s newest star admitting that she once believed grass courts were suitable only for football and not tennis. The 20-year-old Latvian stunned favourite and world number four Simona Halep 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 on Saturday to become tennis’s most unlikely Grand Slam champion.

It was her first career title as she became the lowest-ranked winner in Paris, taking the trophy in just her eighth major appearance. Next up on the Grand Slam circuit is Wimbledon where Ostapenko was junior champion in 2014.

However, she admitted that when she came across a grass court for the first time, it was hardly love at first sight.

“When I first played on grass I didn’t like it, I really didn’t understand it,” she told a small group of reporters following her shock Paris win as she recalled playing on grass at Roehampton in England as a 15-year-old.

“I didn’t see how people could play tennis on it. I thought grass is for soccer.

“But then I learned how to play on it and understood the movement. Now I really like it.”

Ostapenko said she was more than comfortable with dealing with her sudden fame .

Her home town of Riga got in the mood on Saturday when thousands of her compatriots watched her victory on a giant TV screen erected in front of the city’s iconic Freedom Monument.

‘TALKING ABOUT FRENCH OPEN SINCE 10’ Ostapenko’s mother was not surprised that her daughter burst into the limelight to claim the French Open title in spectacular fashion on Saturday.

Ostapenko was 10 when she first mentioned winning the French Open one day, Jakovleva said. “She was on an excursion with her father at Roland Garros and she said maybe one time I will become a champion here.”

Two years later, in 2009, she would win the Open 10-12 in the 12-year-old category, at the Tennis Club de Boulogne Billancourt, a stone’s throw from Roland Garros, joining Amelie Mauresmo and Justine Henin on the list of winners.