Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia has won the French Open.
JELENA Ostapenko has completed an extraordinary grand slam fairytale, upstaging Simona Halep to win the French Open.
Ranked No. 47 in the world, the irrepressible 20-year-old became the first Latvian to snare a major with a 4-6 6-4 6-3 success.
Gunning winners from both wings, Ostapenko is the youngest Roland Garros champion since Croat Iva Majoli (19 years and 300 days) in 1997.
With victories here over Olympic gold medallist Monica Puig, US Open winner Sam Stosur, former world No 1 Caroline Wozniacki, Timea Bacsinszky and Halep, Ostapenko is no fluker.
And there is no second guessing, even though Ostapenko was clad in disbelief.
“I think I cannot believe I am the Roland Garros champion and I’m only 20 years of age,” Ostapenko said.
“I have no words. It was my dream. I’m really, really happy.
“I knew that Simona is a great player. I was just trying to fight for every point even when I was down 6-4 0-3 and again in the third set at 1-3.
“I’m so glad it went my way.”
Contesting only her eighth major, Ostapenko clubbed 54 winners to Halep’s eight, while committing 54 unforced errors to the Romanian’s 10.
And she saved 10 of 16 break points — some when the contest hung in the balance.
Remarkably, Ostapenko had never won a title until now.
The stocky baseliner is the first unseeded champion in the professional era.
The last player to lift the French Open as their first crown was Brazil’s Gustavo Kuerten in 1997 — on the same day Ostapenko was born.
Seemingly destined for defeat, Ostapenko had to do it the hard way.
Trailing 0-3 in the second set and 1-3 in the deciding set, she mentally regrouped in the biggest match of her short career to clamber back on terms.
And then she roared away.
One of the pivotal moments in the match came in the seventh game of the third set when Ostapenko rifled a backhand down the line.
The ball was tracking wide but clattered into the net, ballooned high into the air and landed in for an improbable winner — and break of service.
A simple equation was widely expected to decide the final — the Ostapenko winners to unforced error tallies would tell the tale.
And so it proved.
She thumped 14 winners to Halep’s one in the first set, but committed 23 unforced errors to two — and paid the price for her relentless aggression.
Behind after 39 minutes, Ostapenko showed no inclination to temper her approach.
Bombarding Halep from the back-court, Ostapenko continued to land winners — but even more unforced errors and quickly lapsed to 0-3 (0-40).
Staving off more break points in the fourth and sixth games, the Latvian firebrand suddenly exploded to win six of the next seven games to level the match.
She was in similarly desperate straits in the third set when 1-3 in arrears.
Again refusing to rein in her aggression, Ostapenko stormed through the final five games — seemingly breaking Halep at will.
Ostapenko will rise to a career-high mark of No 1 while Halep is left to reflect on her second runners-up finish in Paris after defeat to Maria Sharapova in 2014.
Originally published as Ostapenko fights back in fairytale final
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