Ostapenko hitting harder than men en route to final

Rookie strikes forehand quicker than Murray French crowd will back underdog against Halep

Fearless, ferocious and fresh-faced – that is Jelena Ostapenko, the unseeded Latvian who smacks her forehand at a higher speed than Andy Murray.

After the way Ostapenko has breezed through to the French Open final, bundling such luminaries as Sam Stosur and Caroline Wozniacki out of her path, the 20-year-old can expect raucous support on Court Philippe Chatrier today.

We are talking about a born gambler here, a woman who delivers winners with total insouciance. “She’s hitting as hard as she can down the line from nowhere,” said Timea Bacsinszky after their semifinal. “I mean, who tries that? It’s like one out of 10. So, we’ll see if she does it at 28 years old. She’s a baby, but she’s a beautiful baby.”

If anyone can put this baby to sleep, it is Simona Halep. Today’s final will throw up a contrast of styles, and of backgrounds, even if Latvia and Romania are both former Eastern Bloc countries.

Ostapenko is a total bolter. Ranked No47 in the world, she is the first unseeded player to reach the French Open final since Yugoslavia’s Mima Jausovic (who had already won the title six years earlier) in 1983. And she is also the youngest woman to play in any grand-slam final since a 19-year-old Wozniacki at the 2009 US Open.

Halep, on the other hand, has been the French Open favourite for weeks, dating back all the way to the controversial Fed Cup tie in Constanta in mid-april. Her captain, Ilie Nastase, might have taken the headlines, but she was inspired by the heated atmosphere in her hometown, brushing past British No 1 Johanna Konta with a nearflawless performance.

The statistics show that Ostapenko is equipped with a bazooka of a forehand. Its average speed throughout the event has been calculated at 76mph, 3mph higher than Murray’s figure going into yesterday’s semi-finals. Yet there is no guarantee that this will be enough to knock Halep off the court.

When Novak Djokovic was at his peak, tennis analyst Brad Gilbert used to call him “the taxman” in honour of his relentlessness. During this clay-court season, Halep has become the female equivalent.

Over the last two rounds, she has used her foot speed and resilience to overcome another pair of heavy hitters in Elina Svitolina and Karolina Pliskova. Indeed, Svitolina led by a set and 5-1, and also held a match point in the second-set tiebreak that Halep fended off with a bold inside-out forehand. So complete was Halep’s concentration at that moment, she did not even realise she was one point from defeat.

Clearly, the women’s draw here has suffered from a depleted field, with Serena Williams and Victoria Azarenka both absent as a result of pregnancies and Maria Sharapova not invited. But the derisive tone adopted by Sharapova’s agent, Max Eisenbud, who described the remaining players as “journeymen” in an ill-conceived email, has been out of line with a compelling tournament.

“I don’t think Halep is going to let go of this title,” said Eurosport pundit Chris Evert yesterday. “The way she has got here, through all the adversity – remember, she nearly didn’t even play the tournament as she hurt her ankle [in the Rome final a week earlier].

“She will come to the match playing sharper than ever, this is her best ever chance to win a grand slam. I think she will find a way.”