Fearless Ostapenko’s high-risk strategy proves pure box office
One-woman tornado takes Cibulkova apart Latvian now faces clash of styles with Kerber
After eight days of uninterrupted, unaccustomed sunshine, the All England Club felt a blast of fresh air yesterday, not just from a cool north-easterly wind, but in the form of Jelena Ostapenko, a onewoman tornado who ripped through No1 Court yesterday.
Dominika Cibulkova was blown away, and so too nearly anything that was not bolted down, as the hard-hitting, hyper-aggressive Ostapenko advanced to the semi-finals of Wimbledon for the first time. Despite being broken three times by Cibulkova, the Latvian arrives in the last four as the only woman yet to drop a set in the tournament.
Semi-final opponent Angelique Kerber will hold no trepidation for Ostapenko. Nor would a potential showdown against Serena Williams. The 21-year-old plays with zero fear or mercy.
Whether it is off her unorthodox forehand or her fierce two-handed backhand, virtually every stroke she plays is an attempted winner. She produced 33 winners in total yesterday to Cibulkova’s six and was pure box office for all 88 minutes of her 7-5, 6-4 victory.
As befits a thrill-seeker with a penchant for bungee jumping, Ostapenko’s strategy is high risk, high reward. “Since I started to play tennis, I always had this opportunity to hit the ball pretty hard,” she said. “When I have opportunity in my matches, I’m just going for the winners. My coach wants me to go for the shots. He doesn’t mind if I miss the shot, but I go for the next one.”
It was this all-or-nothing style that underpinned her French Open victory last year, the first unseeded woman to win at Roland Garros since 1933. Yet the flip side to going big is that you occasionally go home, as Ostapenko then became only the second female French Open title holder to depart in the first round in May. That defeat, in which she made 48 unforced errors against Ukraine’s Kateryna Kozlova, could have left a deep scar. Instead, Ostapenko has found it has liberated her from the pressure at Wimbledon that she found so suffocating in Paris.
She was far from perfect yesterday. Her tally of 28 unforced errors is testament to how close the bust is to the boom. Ostapenko’s second serve frequently dipped below 70mph. Her challenges were also laughably terrible.
Cibulkova capitalised early on to take a 3-1 lead in the first set. Yet when Ostapenko got her radar locked in, then Cibulkova, the thigh-slapping conqueror of Johanna Konta and ruthless inquisitor of chair umpires, had no answer.
“I felt today I couldn’t really bring my game into the match because she was really aggressive on the return,” Cibulkova said. “She didn’t let me just play what I wanted. Of course, she can [win the tournament]. She made it before. She can make it again. She’s young. She’s playing with no fear. It might be her year.”
Standing a full foot inside the baseline, Ostapenko awaited Cibulkova’s second serve with the same way a lion may eye up a newborn gazelle. No matter what variation in speed or spin was applied, Ostapenko was ready for it, with the result that Cibulkova won just 27 per cent of her second serves.
Not that Cibulkova’s first serve was much safer. You will not find Ostapenko’s forehand in many coaching manuals, yet her wide, looping stroke allows her to engineer winners from seemingly impossible positions.
Her semi-final against Kerber should make for a wonderful clash of styles: attack versus defence, fire versus ice.
“It’s going to be a battle,” she said. “It’s going to be a tough match. But I’m going to prepare well for it. [It’s] going to be probably long rallies. I have to be very confident, aggressive and consistent.”
It is difficult to resist the temptation to envisage an Ostapenko versus Williams final. While Williams is favourite to head to the Champions dinner for a ninth time, Ostapenko’s background in ballroom dancing means that she would be well versed for a dance with the men’s champion.
“I did ballroom dancing from five to 12,” Ostapenko said. “I quit for years, but now I’m doing it as a hobby. I think it helps a lot because you have to be very coordinated to do it, and also those small steps, which are very useful in tennis.”