Jelena Ostapenko captured her biggest win in the second half of the WTA season at the Wuhan Open Friday. The Latvian handed Garbine Muguruza her first loss as world number one in a three set battle which she won 1-6, 6-3, 6-2 on Centre Court at the Wuhan Optical Valley Tennis Centre. Ostapenko’s win over a world number one was massive to not only give her the best chance as the last seeded player, but move into the semifinals.
This was a third meeting between two back to back champions of the French Open. The world number one and 2016 champ had the Latvian’s number on two occasions that occurred in Rome each time. Ostapenko did give the Spaniard a three-set thriller this season, but despite losing went on to win her first slam at Roland Garros.
The path to the quarterfinal hasn’t been easy for the 23-year-old as she battled a left leg issue and a tough outing against Magda Linette Wednesday. The 20-year-old hasn’t had a break whatsoever in her last two matches that went the distance. With both vying for another championship, the two superstars of the sport would be at each other for as long as it took for one of them to win.
Muguruza took point on capturing the first break opportunity after they both held one another on serve. She made a clear statement in the fourth holding Ostapenko to nil in the game that kept the idea of the Spaniard’s will to play like a world number one. The young Latvian didn’t let the notion slip her mind and fought on serve to keep things tight.
The battle went to deuce where after a few breaks, two consecutive double faults from the 20-year-old gave Muguruza a much bigger lead. Ostapenko decided to take a chat with coach Anabel Medina Garrigues who asked her to adjust a few parts of her game to compete harder. It was tough to do so with Muguruza playing in fine form to gain a 5-1 hold with considerable ease.
Despite the dismal second serve, the world number one stayed focused in the seventh to gain two set points and win it on a shot that fooled Ostapenko to move the other way. It was a set that didn’t go as well as many hoped as it finished in 34 minutes with Ostapenko committing 15 unforced errors and a serve percentage slightly above 40 percent. The return game needed serious work as she won points on 4 of 17 in the set.
The Latvian star struck back to begin the second with a break of Muguruza but still frustrated with her own serve that couldn’t hold together. With both leveled, Muguruza went for the push forward where she found Ostapenko playing aggressively for the first time in the match. She forced deuce with the Spaniard who blew five game point chances to earn the victory and the lead.
Ostapenko was a mission to dictate the set and moved up the score with a serve to love on the number one seed wanting to widen the gap. Muguruza didn’t help her wishes as she got herself back within a game. The next two games saw the players get into dramatic rallies for the point. When seven games were in the books, Ostapenko was still the frontrunner which led her and Muguruza to take conference calls with their coaches.
Just when it looked as if the world number one would get the break on her Latvian adversary, the 20-year-old struck into contention to hang on and take a big 5-3 lead for a chance to induct a third set. She reached double set point where a line drive on the fourth shot clinched it for the 2017 French Open champion to go the distance against the best after 43 minutes. Despite having more unforced errors and winners, the Latvian clearly gave herself a chance to pull off the upset and go for more points. Muguruza took a medical timeout during the break to get her upper left leg re-taped in order to continue playing.
She struggled for the break in the third but captured it followed by a hold of serve in the next game. In her attempts to stay in contention, Ostapenko broke Muguruza in the fourth to level the score and made an important hold of her own to once again be back in the lead. During the break, Muguruza complained to coach Sam Sumyk of her inability to play against the fast returns in the rallies of the 20-year-old.
Ostapenko kept up the strategy that gave her a two-game margin on the top seed which led her to a 5-2 hold with the best chance to end things. Muguruza had the ball in hands to save the match from ending but errors and fight off the 20-year-old was much harder than thought. She handed Ostapenko match point opportunities in which the second chance knocked out the world number one with a sliced winner to end the 1 hour and 57-minute thriller.
“I just the number one player and it’s amazing,” Ostapenko said after the match. “Today was a long day, and the time to wait was long so it was a little bit difficult to come out. She played really well to start but the second set there were some deciding games and still playing aggressive trying to play my game and it turned my way.”
She’ll hope to have a better outcome against Ashleigh Barty on Saturday in the semifinals which will determine where the path goes for the Latvian.
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