Birthday girl Ostapenko steps up to historic stage

Victory gives Latvia first major finalist; Halep eyes top rank.

PARIS — Jelena Ostapenko is a young woman in a hurry.

On the day she turned 20, Ostapenko became the first unseeded French Open finalist since 1983, using big and bold groundstrokes to end points lickety-split on the way to beating 30th-seeded Timea Bacsinszky of Switzerland 7-6 (4), 3-6, 6-3 on Thursday.

“Her life is like this: Everything very fast,” said Ostapenko’s coach, former pro Anabel Medina Garrigues. “Hit fast. Walk fast. Talk fast.”

It’s true. How quickly did this come together for Ostapenko, the first tennis player from Latvia to reach a Grand Slam final? Not only is this just her eighth major tournament, and not only had she never been past so much as the third round at one before this week, and not only did she lose her opening match in Paris a year ago, but she has yet to win a tour-level title of any sort.

“I mean, when I came here,” Ostapenko said, her words spilling out with nary a pause in between, “of course I didn’t expect I would be in the final.”

In Saturday’s championship match, the 47th-ranked Ostapenko will face Simona Halep of Romania, who got past 2016 U.S. Open runner-up Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 in the second compelling semifinal on a sunny day with the temperature touching 81 degrees.

While Ostapenko is assured of making her debut in the top 20 next week thanks to her surprising showing, there is more at stake for the No. 3-seeded Halep: In addition to a chance for Grand Slam title No. 1, a victory would allow the 25-year-old to seize the No. 1 ranking for the first time, too.

This is the second major final for Halep, the runner-up to Maria Sharapova at Roland Garros three years ago.

There will be quite a contrast in styles Saturday at Court Philippe Chatrier.

The 5-foot-6 Halep is a ball-chasing, defensive dynamo unafraid of lengthy exchanges who gets to nearly everything off an opponent’s racket and is careful when she swings. She made 14 unforced errors against the No. 2-seeded Pliskova, whose total was 55. The 5-10 Ostapenko, meanwhile, is an aggressive tour de force who likes to keep points as snappy as her answers to reporters’ questions.

Bacsinszky’s scouting report on Ostapenko, a pal she played doubles with last year?

“She is young and reckless, in a sense. She’s not afraid of anything. She’s a big hitter,” Bacsinszky said. “She’s a baby, but she’s a beautiful baby.”

Bacsinszky — whose birthday was also Thursday; she turned 28 — tried all manner of strategies, but none worked well enough to win, although Ostapenko won 106 points, Bacsinszky 105.

“Bad luck. OK. It’s a tough one,” Bacsinszky said, her eyes filling with tears. “I cry now or later? It actually makes me cry now.”