Jelena Ostapenko outlasts Riske in three sets at the Australian Open

Jelena Ostapenko was in focus during her second-round match with Alison Riske at the Australian Open,

Jelena Ostapenko dug deep to win her way to the third round of the Australian Open Wednesday. The 26^th seed took on Alison Riske in a three-setter where she found her strengths and won 4-6, 6-2, 6-4 on Court Three at Melbourne Park. 

The two had a previous battle at the US Open in 2019 where the aggressive style of Ostapenko kept the American behind in straight sets. Two days ago, the 26^th seed had to fight her way into the second round with Anna Karolina Schmiedlova causing a lengthy struggle on the court. Though she finished with some control, Riske’s style of moving the ball around would be a different side of the spectrum. The 31-year-old held off Donna Vekic in straight sets showing her strength to return to the second round for the fourth time in her career. Planning a way to rack up the errors for Ostapenko would stand out as a huge path to moving on. 

Ostapenko opened the scoring with the forehand working well to keep Riske off her back. The American stumbled at the start of her service but fought to come back and force deuce. All her effort went out the window when she lost her AD point chance to hold and watched Ostapenko score the break. She went up 3-0 to back up the early success when the American got on the board in the fourth. 

She managed to break Ostapenko, getting a jump on the score and holding a breakpoint. The score was leveled as Riske backed up the break and conducted the seventh game in the shape of a double break. With shutout in the eighth, Ostapenko made good of her service to deny another break chance for the American. The 31-year-old responded with a second serve to love that capped the first in 38 minutes. The Latvian kept the unforced errors low, but not enough to stop her opponent’s consistency. 

While The 26^th seed maintained serve, Riske did the same from her end as well. After five holds of serve, Ostapenko found a way to break the American and get out front for the first time in 13 games. She backed it up and sat 5-2 with a shot at forcing them to a decider. Ostapenko let Riske make the mistakes that gave her three set points before taking the second set on a break that fell long. Ostapenko had just three errors compared to Riske’s seven that truly made the difference to how she plays both sides and increased winners. 

With the positive output so far in the match, Ostapenko rolled it into the third set where she took control of her service and what Riske hit across the net. It led to the Latvian taking a 3-0 lead until the fourth when Riske battled back on serve to secure the game and end her slide. She won the next two that leveled the score with the 26^th seed making the seventh battle over. Riske took charge and led 40-15 before Ostapenko got back into the fight. The Latvian overcame the deficit to force deuce and in the rally for the AD point, the 24-year old snapped off a crosscourt shot to lead once more. 

Riske denied her the opportunity to sit alone long and held serve in the eighth to keep things tight. Ostapenko got the message and stayed tough to jump back to a 5-4 situation, hoping that Riske would falter at the right time for her benefit. Good responses from the Latvian put the nerves all the head of Riske, who double-faulted at the end completing 1 hour and 56 minutes. With a handle on the unforced errors which she leveled with winners at 36, the 24-year-old would await her opponent on Friday in the shape of Xiyu Wang or French Open champion Barbora Krejcikova.