Inexperience to earn French Open crown
day Ostapenko was born.
Ostapenko had promised to stick to her uncomplicated routine before the final and was true to her word as she walloped 54 clean winners — and 54 unforced errors. Third seed Halep buckled under strain of fending off the missiles being launched off Ostapenko’s lime green racket.
Yet for much of the contest, hanging into rallies by her fingernails, it seemed Halep’s steady approach would see her become only the second Romanian woman to win a grand slam title after her manager Virginia Ruzici’s 1978 Roland Garros win. It was not to be.
To make it a doubly difficult day for the 25-year-old, the defeat meant she also missed out on becoming world No 1 today.
“I felt like a spectator out there at times,” Halep, said after her second runner-up finish at Roland Garros. “She only has one game; either I can’t touch it or it flies one metre out.”
Ostapenko, who had the Parisian crowd roaring her on, reeled off the last five games to claim the title and become the youngest female firsttime grand slam champion since Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova won the 2004 US Open.
Ostapenko, who turned 20 on Friday when she beat Swiss Timea Bacsinszky in the semifinals, will rocket to 12th in the rankings.
“I can’t believe I’m champion at 20,” Ostapenko said. “I knew that Gustavo Kuerten won his first Roland Garros the day I was born, I have no words.
“There were a couple of games when everything went my way and I was ready to fight for every point.”
Halep, beaten by Maria Sharapova in the final in 2014, had been the favourite from the start of the tournament and looked to be cruising at a set and 3-0, with points for 4-0. But Ostapenko trusted in her game and then came from behind again in the decider, winning the final five games.
“I knew Simona is a great player and she was playing great. I was just trying to stay aggressive,” she said. “I was missing but a couple of games were decisive and everything turned my way. Even in the third, I was 3-1 down, but I tried to fight for every point.”
Sharapova is skipping the grasscourt season and will not try to qualify for Wimbledon because she has not recovered from an injured left thigh.
The five-time major champion and former No 1-ranked player announced yesterday that “an additional scan” showed the muscle tear she got at the Italian Open last month will not allow her to return to competition yet.
“I will continue to work on my recovery,” she said. — AAP