Jelena Ostapenko added another victim to her long list of victories at the French Open. The youthful power house took it to Caroline Wozniacki once again on Court Philippe Chatrier before winning 4-6, 6-2, 6-2 Tuesday. It was the fourth time she had defeated the former number one and put herself another step to the semifinals at Roland Garros.
Since last season, the Latvian began her march to victories over Wozniacki winning at New Haven followed by another pair of wins at Charleston and Prague. The soon to be 20-year-old is in very new territory making it further than she has ever been in a grand slam. While she hasn’t pulled off a top 20 win just yet, she’ll have the chance and an opportunity to dictate once more against the former number one. With the 26-year-old so close to reaching her first semifinal at Roland Garros, her mission to break ahead early would give her the best shot at handling the up and coming star from taking another hit on the former number one and get into the final four.
Wozniacki took a 2-0 lead as the unforced errors racked up for the 19-year-old early. She had eight going into the third where the Latvian made attempts to recover forcing deuce. After two breaks, her aggression didn’t work out as the Dane continued to climb up the scoreboard. The wind only seemed to help the Dane as Ostapenko couldn’t handle the winds and found herself deeper and still scoreless.
Game five was rushing in the late stages as rain began to fall but the two found themselves in a deuce draw last a few breaks. After six minutes and a rush to end things, it was Wozniacki taking it to play for the set. The Latvian denied her the bagel as a push for something good to happen came together in the shape of a service hold. Another opportunity to break the 11th seed came with great positioning on court, attack the ball and gain another step in the set.
Her mood gained a much happier disposition as she continued her aggressive stance to make things happen. It resulted in another comeback on serve where the ball placement worked against her but tuned it out to get the hold by any means. A third chance for Wozniacki to end the set came and went as Ostapenko had her signature winners of line drives beating the Dane in the rallies.
She was pulling off the full comeback in serve for the tie until the errors came back to set up Wozniacki with three set points. The relief for the 11th seed came after 46 minutes where the sun came out and shined just enough to give her the pass and the lead. While both serves were under 60 percent, the heavy hits came to Ostapenko’s who landed 25 percent of shots on the second serve while recording 25 unforced errors through ten games.
With a new set to improve, the 19-year-old gave herself every chance of recovering while the match allowed it. She soon took her first lead getting deep in the court to land shots with a smash against Wozniacki. She broke her in the third but the Dane kept things tied with a break of her own. It would be the last she’d see as the teen carried off the next three wins to get herself in a spot to level the match. Before her chance to do that could occur, the tournament organizers ended play quickly to avoid the heavy downpour that soon followed.
The delay lasted three hour and a quarter hours before the two played a point leaving Wozniacki with a gained advantage. She still had to finish the set which Ostapenko held to finish the eighth game swiftly. It was a 29-minute set which saw her win 60 percent of point on serve while her opponent suffered winning just 33 percent recording two winners.
Knowing that she had to brush off the second, the Dane moved into the third with a good service hold followed by Ostapenko taking point on her own. Wozniacki won game three before another delay took them off the courts as a system of thunder and lightning came in to suspend play. Twenty minutes surpassed before they returned with the Latvian leveling the score and more.
The 19-year-old dominated quickly while the experienced veteran showed struggle once again. Her numerous unforced errors opened the door for Ostapenko to run away with games and more as it went along. With the confidence high in the young tennis star, she opened the eighth game with three quick points setting up a five-shot rally to end the 2 hour and 15-minute match.
While she carried together a very strong outing with court positioning and solid forehand attacks, it was just enough to frustrate and bring down Wozniacki’s game. Despite the loss, the Dane gains a number of points to move her into the top ten. Ostapenko has her eyes set on much more as she’ll go into Thursday’s semifinal to face Timea Bacsinsky who returns to her second semifinal on the clay courts in Paris.
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