Jelena Ostapenko is a bundle of contradictions.
A former French Open champion — with a dreadful overall Roland Garros record.
A friendly, giggly personality away from the court — but a frequently volatile one on it.
Someone who has struggled for consistency — but has beaten the world No 1 Iga Swiatek in all four of their meetings.
Advertisement
Seven years on from that hugely unlikely French Open win, Ostapenko is back in the world’s top 10. She remains compelling — whether her game is brilliant or awful.
“Players like me and Daniil Medvedev, it’s fun to watch us,” Ostapenko tells The Athletic as we discuss her prospects at Roland Garros, her volatility, and that shock 2017 win.
“Some players are… it’s not boring but it’s like they’re always the same and they’re always behaving the same. It’s more entertaining to watch the players who are showing some emotions.”
Ostapenko does not hide her emotions. She is hugely demonstrative when playing, even telling her own mother to leave the arena during that French Open final win over Simona Halep. Opponents often feel her wrath too, with frosty handshakes at the end of matches becoming an Ostapenko staple. Even electronic line-calling, which she admits she still doesn’t fully trust, has been in her crosshairs in the past.
But, true to her nature, it’s hard to imagine Ostapenko in pugilist mode when she is cheerfully talking about her off-court interests, such as dancing, golf and fashion.
GO DEEPER
Daniil Medvedev is the fly-swatting enigma of men's tennis - and he's taking a moment
Whatever Ostapenko does at this French Open, she is likely to make headlines. Her game, like her personality, is all-or-nothing, and nowhere is that more apparent than at Roland Garros, where she won all seven matches in 2017, and has won a total of four in her eight other visits. She lost her opening match in four of her first five trips to the only Grand Slam played on clay; she just happened to win the whole thing in that other year.
As one of the only players who can feel confident against three-time champion Swiatek, will Ostapenko be partying like it’s 2017 in a couple of weeks?
So far, 2024 has been a very impressive year for Ostapenko. She became the first woman to pick up two titles in it, having won the events in Adelaide and Linz by early February, and was back in the top 10 for the first time since 2018 soon after.
Before her first-round match in Paris, against Jaqueline Cristian of Romania, Ostapenko, now 26, is trying to channel her spirit of seven years ago, when she won the title having only just turned 20, saying: “In the last few years, I was stepping back in deciding moments but I want to play more aggressively in deciding moments — when I do, it’s much harder for the opponent.”
Advertisement
She then adds with classic matter-of-factness: “Most of the matches when, in the deciding moments, I just go for the shots, like, 99 per cent of the matches, I win.”
Ostapenko really did come out of nowhere in 2017.
She was the world No 47, competing in just her eighth major, and by winning she became the first unseeded French Open champion in almost 100 years.
Her final victory over Halep saw her hit a staggering 54 winners, equalled by 54 unforced errors.
During the tournament, she hit her forehand at a faster speed, on average, than the then men’s world No 1 Andy Murray had done in reaching the semi-finals.
She giggled endearingly during her victory speech and looked as bewildered as everyone else at what had happened.
Opponent Halep nailed it when she said: “Be happy, and keep it going, because you are like a kid.”
Ostapenko’s childlike fearlessness was a huge help in that final, but winning a major title so unexpectedly is not easy to process. A talented youngster, she won junior Wimbledon in 2014 as a 17-year-old, but she was in no way prepared to win the French Open when she did. That sudden success took a toll.
“It was an unbelievable achievement for me, but I didn’t expect it at that young age,” she says. “I always worked for winning a Grand Slam, and I obviously knew I could do it one day, but I didn’t expect it then. If I won the Grand Slam a bit later, maybe it wouldn’t have taken me that long to get used to this attention.”
Was the level of attention tough to deal with? “It was hard,” she says, “because everyone expected me to play the same every single day, to win every single tournament. But we’re tennis players. We cannot feel well every single day.
“It took me time because I was really… I was not expecting that much attention. Everyone wanted to have their time with me. It was not easy. And at the same time, I still have to practise and play tennis, which is the biggest priority.”
Advertisement
Despite the shock of the attention her triumph brought, Ostapenko continued to produce good results. She followed up her Roland Garros title with a quarter-final run at that year’s Wimbledon and was a finalist in Miami the following March, achieving a career-high ranking of No 5 ahead of the latter tournament.
Her French Open defence, appropriately enough, ended at the first-round stage, with defeat to then world No 66 Kateryna Kozlova. An exhausted Ostapenko took some time to enjoy the sights of Paris in the days after — visiting the Louvre and Versailles, and “just to be like a tourist a little bit”. She celebrated her 21st birthday with friends, and, recharged, reached the semi-finals of Wimbledon, losing to the eventual champion Angelique Kerber.
Her biggest successes at the majors since have been in doubles, where she has reached the quarter-finals or better of all four Slams since 2019. She was the runner-up, with the Ukrainian Lyudmyla Kichenok, at this year’s Australian Open.
On the singles court, though, she has developed a reputation for inconsistency and erratic performances.
In her mind, the best remedy is to channel the carefree way she played when bursting onto the scene — which largely involved smashing the living daylights out of the ball, especially on the forehand side. It’s an approach that has generally been working well this year, helping her to that ranking of 10th, and to the Italian Open quarter-finals in her last event.
“I was fearless back then (2017),” she says. “I wasn’t thinking about anything, because I was really young. I’m working to have that feeling back again. In a few moments, I have that feeling back, but (with) all people, the older they are, the more they start to think.
“Maybe in some moments they think, ‘Well, maybe I should do this, or I should do that’. But I have to stick to one thing that I’m doing and what’s working well and just do that thing.”
The version of Ostapenko that won the 2017 French Open has become a byword for just going for it. At the Italian Open a couple of weeks ago, former world No 1 and four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka was asked about the dilemma of finding success on clay. Should she modify her game, or just play the aggressive way that has earned her so much success on hard courts?
“Ostapenko won the French Open, so maybe I should just stick to my guns,” Osaka said.
GO DEEPER
Naomi Osaka, The Comeback Interview: A tale of pregnancy, fear and a ballerina
Soon after her French Open success, Ostapenko had one of her first high-profile run-ins with another player.
After losing to Daria Kasatkina in that year’s U.S. Open third round, Ostapenko looked away from her opponent as she gave her a very flimsy handshake. Ostapenko then said in her press conference: “I actually don’t know her. We just play the same tournaments from the age of 10 or 12. I saw her many times, but I don’t know her.”
"Notice the frost on the fingers." – Mary Carillo
🇷🇺@DKasatkina def. 🇱🇻Jelena #Ostapenko on Day 6.
The post-match handshake? ICY. ❄️#USOpen pic.twitter.com/n16FAW169G— Tennis Channel (@TennisChannel) September 3, 2017
The handshake was criticised by some players. The previous year, Ostapenko threw her racket during a match at the Auckland Open in New Zealand and it struck a ball boy. Her opponent, Naomi Broady, insisted that Ostapenko had deliberately thrown her racket; after the match, the pair had to be separated at the net by the umpire.
Advertisement
This February, after losing to Victoria Azarenka in Qatari capital Doha, Ostapenko held out her racket rather than her hand, prompting a superb eye-roll from her opponent. It was the third time she had lost to the Belarussian in seven weeks, and the decision attracted the attention of the tennis community. Following the previous two defeats, Ostapenko had looked away from Azarenka as she shook her hand.
At the time of the non-handshake, Azarenka said, “I can’t speak for how she feels and why she does it. Some of her line callings, I mean, it can be a bit comical… that’s just how she is. I don’t necessarily judge. I’m just there to play a match.”
Three times of azarenka&Ostapenko's handshake in 2024. pic.twitter.com/cCLhMiesls
— TennisMao (@AfiSeer73403) February 14, 2024
What is Ostapenko’s version of those events?
There are suggestions that her position is geopolitical — she has Ukrainian family and a Ukrainian doubles partner; Latvia is a strategic ally of Ukraine. The theory goes that her frostiness towards Azarenka is because Belarus is a supporter of Russia and its ongoing war in Ukraine.
“There is a reason behind it,” Ostapenko says.
Can you say the reasons? “I better leave it, probably.”
Is the war in Ukraine a part of it? “There are a few reasons for that.”
GO DEEPER
Hugs, handshakes and blanking your opponent: How geopolitics is impacting Wimbledon
More broadly, Ostapenko says she has always been competitive, and adds: “It’s like Daniil Medvedev was saying: ‘All the demons come out on court’.”
“When I’m on the court, I can get really emotional, and it’s hard to control my emotions sometimes. Of course, I’m working on it.”
Ostapenko cites Murray as another player who is “a completely different person” on and off the court.
One of Azarenka’s issues with Ostapenko was a late medical time-out in that Doha match — a move that is generally considered in violation of tennis etiquette. She “tried everything”, as Azarenka put it afterwards. Azarenka herself is no stranger to controversy around this topic.
Advertisement
This was also a source of tension between Ostapenko and Ajla Tomljanovic, with whom she had a heated exchange at the end of their third-round match at Wimbledon three years ago. Tomljanovic protested against Ostapenko using a medical timeout when 4-0 down in the final set, saying, “She knew she wasn’t injured.”
Ostapenko in response accused Tomljanovic of being “very disrespectful”.
On court, she said at the net: “If you think I’m faking it, you can talk with the physio. Your behaviour is terrible. You have zero respect.”
Tomljanovic responded: “You’re the one to talk.”
Ostapenko shot back: “What? You’re the worst player on tour.”
The two met again at this year’s Australian Open — Ostapenko winning in three sets — and there appeared to be no ill-will.
“We were both very respectful during the match in the Australian Open,” Ostapenko says.
How does Ostapenko view her controversial reputation? “It’s more entertaining to watch the players who are showing some emotions,” she says. “When I watched Serena Williams, I really loved when she was screaming and doing those things, because you can see her personality; and she’s a true champion.”
Ostapenko has also attracted attention for her distrust of electronic line calling, and advocates for a return to using line judges alongside video technology. “The one which is live I don’t believe to be 100 per cent accurate,” Ostapenko says. “Because even when I’m not playing and am watching on TV, I have felt like it was not 100 per cent accurate.”
GO DEEPER
Rublev's default in Dubai is exactly why tennis needs electronic line calling
A more recent confrontation came in Madrid last month when Ostapenko gave Ons Jabeur the no-look handshake treatment. Jabeur was magnanimous afterwards saying: “Everybody knows Jelena. I think she always tells me the demons in her head come out during the match, so I completely understand… Probably my box wasn’t that easy (either), cheering for me.”
Advertisement
Ostapenko gestured towards Jabeur’s camp in their box during the match, and explained that her reaction had little to do with her opponent.
“If you’re playing against someone and her team is disrespectful on the court, cheering on double faults… It’s just showing how they are probably,” she said.
“Because I have nothing against Ons. She’s a nice person. If you are a coach, and doing these things, I don’t really get it.”
Ostapenko has not always found the peripatetic lifestyle of a tennis player easy. She has a diverse set of interests and would love to have more time at home in Riga to pursue them.
She was a ballroom dancer to a national level growing up, and still likes to do it whenever she’s back there — though her coach has been away, so she hasn’t had the chance for a few months. Ostapenko has also started playing golf regularly, and her experience of it is satisfyingly on brand.
“The thing I really love to do is hit the first shot,” she says. “And the most annoying thing is when you have to putt. That I hate, because you need some patience there. And if it’s like 10cm or 15cm (4-6in) away and doesn’t go in, I get really frustrated! But I’m doing pretty good.”
Ostapenko is also interested in fashion, and designs some of her own clothes with a friend who works in the industry.
The fact she is one of the few top players who regularly competes in the doubles also speaks to Ostapenko’s sociable side.
But on the singles court, it’s strictly business. Especially when it’s taking care of Swiatek, the world No 1 who Ostapenko could face in this year’s French Open semi-finals for a first meeting on clay. “That’s my top secret,” Ostapenko replies, with a grin when asked how she has kept beating Swiatek. “I’m not going to say anything.”
First things first, though — that meeting with world No 67 Cristian. Will she be able to stay calm if the going gets tough?
“I have to use emotions and, yes, sometimes I get frustrated,” she says. “But I’m working on changing things and I’m on the right track.”
(Photos: Getty Images)
