Jelena Ostapenko did not have the game she wanted at the French Open Sunday. The world number seven and last year’s champion had way too many issues with the service that gave first timer Kateryna Kozlova a straight sets win 7-5, 6-3 on Philippe Chatrier Court at Roland Garros. It was the upset of the day in the women’s draw that handed the 24-year-old her first career win in Paris. Ostapenko becomes the second defending champion to lose since Anastasia Myskina in 2005. It also becomes the fourth slam where the defending champion didn't enter the main draw or didn't surpass the opening round.
The defending champion came into her first journey of being in the spotlight right from the start. The 20-year-old who came roaring into last year’s final to cap her first career slam, got started with a third meeting against the unseeded Ukrainian. While they haven’t played in two years, the difficulty would weigh heavily against Kozlova who carried a five-match losing streak into her second slam tournament.
She put that aside showing her competitive spirit right away against the Latvian. The Ukrainian went to deuce where she lasted two breaks before losing out on the break chance. She held serve in the second game before going back to her tactics that worked out earning the break with two points. She consolidated with another hold of serve that gave her a 3-1 stance after four. While it was a big moment for Kozlova, Ostapenko refused to give her another one as she locked down game point in the fifth.
In her attempts to get the set leveled back, the 20-year-old fell short of getting ahead of Kozlova having too many errors on the forehand that made it 4-2 for the Ukrainian. She was truly a big challenge for the Latvian who seemed to show signs of injury but still fought through every point. The seventh game saw them go five breaks before Ostapenko held serve to keep within reach of the 24-year-old.
She made it happen for the first time since the start of the set once again showing her efforts to play point by point breaking Kozlova for the first time. She couldn’t get any more ground made as the rookie in the tournament captured the break serving for the set in the tenth. Ostapenko denied her that opportunity putting aggression and big returns to keep her hopes of leading. She would not get that chance as Kozlova was showing serious strength taking the two games required to conclude the set in 63 minutes.
Ostapenko had 29 errors in her early defeat with the first serve underperforming. The efforts the Ukrainian put caused her to bust a blister on the back of her foot that was tended to during a medical timeout. After taking some time to get patched up leaving the Latvian to sit around, she came out into the second set firing big shots that beat down Kozlova for a 2-0 lead. The Ukrainian got into the set breaking Ostapenko in her response to stay in view of winning the match. She leveled the score holding serve in the fourth leaving the 20-year-old to wonder how she could hold off such heavy opposition.
Her own game was a mess adding more double faults (10) than she wanted to start her tournament run. Errors on both sides of her racket continued handing Kozlova an easy break. The 20-year-old followed suit to follow the path of her opponent until she could find a chance to break away. She had a 5-3 hold as Ostapenko had the fight but the mistakes were the keys to her defeat and last chance to stay alive on serve in the ninth.
She struggled to be herself out on court giving Kozlova two match points which she got done on a final error into the net for her 48th of the day which was unseen since her historic win last year. Her 13 double faults were also a rarity from the young superstar who hasn’t fallen out of a slam early in quite some time.
While she gears up to prepare for the next surface season, the 24-year-old rookie would look to Wednesday where she’ll take on Katerina Siniakova and former world number one Victoria Azarenka.
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