Jelena Ostapenko vs Simona Halep (4-6, 6-4, 6-3)
Fearlessness and aggressiveness: these characteristics were what Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko brought during her French Open finals match against online betting favourite Simona Halep.
And that proved enough as she completed a stunning comeback to defy betting odds and cap her fairytale run at Roland Garros with her maiden Grand Slam crown.
The win indeed caused a huge shock for sports betting fans expecting a Halep victory, but it can’t be denied that Ostapenko’s triumph was no fluke either as she displayed an unbelievable offence to control the match all the way.
Of course, the battle wasn’t easy for the young Latvian, especially in the first set when she committed 23 unforced errors. Her plan to stay aggressive backfired, eventually losing the set to the 25-year-old Romanian despite hitting 14 winners.
It was the same story for her in both the second and third, trailing by 0-3 and 1-3 respectively in the beginning of each set. However, this time she refused to rein in her aggression and stormed back to win successive games and stave off more break points.
Post-match statistics would add more details to the tale of how Ostapenko defeated Halep.
The World No.4 showed great defence in the fight, relentlessly tracking Ostapenko’s groundstroke after another, running down, lunging and returning balls at an impressive speed. She also made just 10 errors, the fewest in any of her previous matches.
Nonetheless, Halep hit only eight winners while Ostapenko clubbed 54 – an offensive performance that exhausted and broke her highly-seeded opponent.
“I’m really happy to win here,” Ostapenko said after the match. “I think I still cannot believe it because it was my dream and now it came true.”
The victory came with history and lots of firsts for Ostapenko who just turned 20 a couple of days ago.
The rising star is the first unseeded woman to win the French Open since 1933 and the first Latvian to do so. She also became the first player since 1991 to win the title from a set down.
Additionally, she is the youngest champion of the tournament since a 19-year-old Iva Majoli won it in 1997.
Currently 47th in the world, Ostapenko will climb to 12th when the new rankings are updated. She’ll also move to No.4 in the Race to Singapore leaderboard. Halep, meanwhile, will reach No.2 from No.4 in the rankings.
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