Jelena Ostapenko is a Latvian professional tennis player. Although she is only 21 years old, she has clearly distinguished herself from the other players. She won her first professional title in 2017 and since July 2018 she is number 12 of the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA). Jelena is characterized by her highly aggressive playing style, which is characterized by powerful inside-out groundstrokes and a tendency to aim for the lines, playing with unsurpassed confidence and using her backhand as her strongest weapon.
Jelena Ostapenko Biography
The 2017 French Open champion was born on June 8, 1997, in Riga, the capital and largest city of Lativa. Her birth name is Jelena Ostapenko. However, her parents would have liked to give their beloved daughter another nickname, Alona, an ethnic Ukrainian name. Since she is Latvian, the children’s naming follows the custom of choosing a name that appears in the Latvian naming calendar, so Alona was outvoted and Jelena was chosen instead. Nevertheless, she is known as Alona to her family and friends and a number of fans, and a part of the sports community.
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Her preferred nickname Alona is being considered by the Latvian government to be included in the Latvian naming calendar after her victory at the French Open.
Jelena was born in an athletic home, her mother is a tennis coach, her father played professional football in a Ukrainian club. She made her debut in this game at the age of 5, after her mother had discovered her talent for tennis two years earlier. Her tennis idols were Serena Williams and Ernest’s Gulbis. Besides playing tennis, she also started dancing at the same age and was a professional ballroom dancer for seven years. She took part in the Latvian National Ballroom Dance Championships and could dance about 10 dances.
After juggling with both activities until she was 12 years old, the time had finally come for her to make a choice. Jelena chose tennis instead of dance, which she believes is important to her and has brought better results. However, the tennis player is grateful for the years she spent dancing and attributes this to her good coordination and skillful footwork.
Career
Jelene participated in the 2014 Wimbledon Junior Championships and won the individual competition. In September 2014 she was elected number 2 in the Junior World Ranking. In the same year, she received a wildcard and made her debut with the WTA Tour main draw at the Tashkent Open. In 2015 she saw the first WTA final of her career at the Coupe Banque Nationals, although she lost to German player Annika Beck, who finished the season as number 79 in the world.
The following season, Jelena was seeded for the first time in her Grand Slam career at the French Open in singles, although she lost her opening match against Naomi Osaka. She made her Olympic debut at the 2016 Summer Olympics but lost in the first round.
2017 was a remarkable year for the tennis player as it marked a series of epoch-making events in her career. At the French Open, she reached her first Grand Slam semi-final ever with number 47 in the world rankings; she was the first Latvian player to do so and, after Ana Ivanovic in 2007, the first teenager in a decade to reach the semi-finals. Finally, she reached the final as the first unseeded player to play in the French Open final since 1983 and the first Latvian player in a decade to reach a major final.
Jelena played Simona Halep in the final and emerged as the winner. In the list of her top finishers, she was the first Latvian player to win a Grand Slam singles tournament, the first unseeded woman to win the French Open since 1933, and the first player since 1997 to win her first career title at a Grand Slam. Her predecessor was Gustavo Kuerten, who won the title on her birthday.
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In 2018 Jelena Ostapenko reached her first semi-final at Wimbledon but lost to the German Angelique Kerber, who triumphed 6-3, 6-3 on July 12. In her career profile, she has also played as a member of the Latvian Fed Cup team and won seven singles and eight doubles titles on the ITF tour.
Jelena Ostapenko Family, Parents
Jelena is undoubtedly a phenomenal player, but she mentions that her parents play the main role in the game, so we have to ask ourselves who her parents are. Here are the details. She was born as the daughter of a former footballer Jevgenijs Ostapenko and a tennis coach Jelena Jakovleva Her father played as a professional for FC Metalurh Zaporizhia, Zaporizhia, Ukraine. She has a half-brother, Maksim Ostapenko, who lives in Los Angeles, USA, and graduated from an art school there.
Her mother is her full-time coach, while her father is also her fitness coach. She was coached in 2017 by two-time French Open double champion Anabel Medina Garrigues and now by David Taylor for the Major League.
Height, Weight, Body Measurements
It is 5′ 10″ (1.77 m) and weighs 68 kg (150 lbs). Her body measurements are not known.
Jelena Ostapenko Facts
- Her favorite shots are serve and backhand; her favorite surfaces are grass and hard; her favorite tournament is Wimbledon.
- Jelena enjoys spending time with her parents and her dog (Juljeta), listening to music, going to the movies with friends, reading, and watching field hockey on the ice.
- She speaks Latvian, Russian, and English.