Unseeded and 20, Ostapenko stuns Halep for 1st major
PARIS — Right from the start of the French Open final, Jelena Ostapenko made quite clear to anyone unfamiliar with her name, or her game, what she is all about.
Yes, she was just two days past her 20th birthday. Yes, she was ranked only 47th. Yes, she was trying to become the first unseeded women’s champion at the tournament since — get this — 1933. And yes, she was trying to become the first woman in nearly four decades to make a Grand Slam title the first tour-level triumph of her career. None of that mattered to Ostapenko.
She began what would become an enthralling, twohour encounter by breaking third-seeded Simona Halep at love with a series of gripit-and-rip-it shots, eliciting loud, appreciative gasps from spectators. So what if Ostapenko wound up dropping that set and then faced big deficits in the second and third? Ostapenko never wavered, using bold strokes and an unbending will to come back and stun Halep 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 for an unlikely championship at Roland Garros.
“Before the match, five to 10 minutes, I was a little bit nervous,” said Ostapenko, the first Latvian to win a major. “But then, when I went on court, I felt quite free.”
Halep, a 25-year-old from Romania, was the 2014 French Open runner-up and would have moved up to No. 1 in the WTA rankings if she had won Saturday. She appeared headed for a runaway victory when up a set and 3-0 in the second, plus holding three break points for the chance to lead 4-0. But Ostapenko would not go quietly, winning that game and the next three en route to forcing a third set.
“I felt a little bit nervous,” said Ostapenko, the first woman since Jennifer Capriati in 2001 to win the French Open after losing the final’s opening set. “But then I felt, ‘I have nothing to lose, so I’m just going to enjoy the match and do my best.’ ”
She again summoned a veteran’s resolve down 3-1 in the third set, taking the match’s last five games and, fittingly, striking a pair of winners on the last two points.
“Enjoy, be happy, and keep it going,” Halep told Ostapenko during the trophy ceremony, “because you’re like a kid.”
Ostapenko was playing in only her eighth Grand Slam tournament and never had been past the third round before. Clay isn’t even her preferred surface — she likes grass better, and won the Wimbledon junior title in 2014 — which made this two-week joyride even more unpredictable.
On the men’s side, Rafael Nadal of Spain will try to make tennis history Sunday when he plays Switzerland’s Stan Wawrinka and goes for his 10th French Open championship, more than any man or woman has won at any major tournament in the nearly halfcentury professional era. It also would raise Nadal’s overall Grand Slam haul to 15, alone in second place and three away from the men’s record of 18 held by Roger Federer.