Vesnina reveals locker-room secrets, praises Ostapenko
dubai — Singles isn’t Elena Vesnina’s forte even though she reached the semifinal in the biggest tournament of them all — Wimbledon — in 2016.
It’s in doubles where Vesnina is a world-class, with four Grand Slam titles and an Olympic gold medal that she won with Ekaterina Makarova for Russia.
But she is still a very good singles player and an erratic Jelena Ostapenko, the reigning French Open champion, discovered it on Wednesday when the Russian thrashed her in the first set before clinching the round of 16 clash 6-1 7-6 to storm into the quarterfinals in Dubai, where she had also won the doubles title last year.
“I’m just really happy that I won my match against Jelena. It was a weird match. At the beginning, everything was going my way. I was playing very clean. Jelena was missing a lot of shots,” the 31-year-old Vesnina told reporters after her victory.
“In the second set, she got back. She is, after all, a top 10 player, she is a Grand Slam champion.”
But Vesnina wasn’t flawless either as she struggled with her serve, especially in the second set.
“I had some kind of weird games on my serve. I will speak with my coach about that. I actually asked him before the changeover, I feel like I’m tossing the ball totally wrong, my timing is not good,” the world number 23 admitted.
“I had three double-faults. Definitely it was a very nerve-wracking match, especially at the end. The tiebreaker had some long rallies. I was running side to side like a rabbit trying to get every single ball back to her.
“She’s really a good baseliner. She’s hitting quite strong and hard and deep. You have to stay during the rally, play as many balls as possible on the other side, try to move her around.”
Vesnina then defended the 20-year-old Ostapenko despite the Latvian’s inconsistent run after her French Open triumph.
“You know, she’s a very confident girl. It helps her a lot. It’s a really good kind of feel that she has inside of her,” Vesnina said.
“A lot of players (in the locker-room) are saying that she’s not really kind of respectful to other girls. I mean, she’s still junior, give her some time. She’s getting better.
“She has this confidence in herself.
I’m just really happy that I won my match against Jelena. It was a weird match Elena Vesnina
She’s a different character compared to all the junior girls her age. “I would say she’s brave, brave enough to say something in her face. She can say that, ‘Oh, this player is nothing special….’
“Yeah, so there is some talks in the locker room sometimes. In the beginning, she had some problems. She was not shaking hands right, proper, blah, blah, blah, all these kind of things. “But I think she’s kind of brave, confident in herself. She’s not afraid of everyone. That’s why she won French Open. She’s not afraid. She’s fearless.
“She has this Grand Slam title. Nobody will take it away from her. She has the game. That’s the most important thing. Maybe she has some problems with her game, with some psychology, mental part. She needs to get more mature, get her emotions right.
“But definitely she’s a great player. We will see many, many matches of her in the future. She will win many tournaments in the future.”
rituraj@khaleejtimes.com