Candor has long been one of Jelena Ostapenko’s traits, so it was no surprise to find her only too ready and willing to discuss her emphatic triumph against World Number One Iga Swiatek in the fourth round of the United States Open early this week. “I think the main thing is she doesn’t really like to play big hitters,” she said in the aftermath of her win against the defending champion. “She likes to have some time. When I play fast, aggressive and powerful, she’s a little bit in trouble.” And it was exactly how she treated every point — with speed, aggression, and power.
Not that Ostapenko was wrong in her assessment. After all, she has beaten Swiatek in all four of their encounters over the years, a distinction to which no other competitor on tour can lay claim. That said, magnanimity in victory has been the norm rather than the exception, and not simply because of good manners and right conduct. Considering the thin lines separating the great from the exceptional, it’s likewise prudent to refrain from providing locker room fodder to motivate the opposition.
To be sure, Ostapenko’s frankness works both ways. In her very next match, she again let fly with eyebrow-raising utterances. Three games into her quarterfinal round set-to against the surging Coco Gauff, for instance, she couldn’t help but shout, evidently to supporters in her box, “I’m retiring. I’m retiring. I don’t want to play anymore.” Needless to say, she struggled out of the gate, and wound up with a first set bagel that took a mere 20 minutes to complete. She would claim only two games thereafter, taking with her 38 unforced errors as she exited the tournament in disappointment.
The post-match presser featured more of Ostapenko speaking her mind. She railed against the scheduling, which, she contended, favored Gauff. Admittedly, she had a point, with her previous outing against Swiatek running into the early morning hours — traveling back to her hotel room from Flushing Meadows and the attendant unwinding included. The ensuing meeting in the afternoon yesterday meant relatively less time for her to recover. “Honestly, there were so many games where I had chances and I missed some … easy balls, and I think my concentration was not there compared to the other matches I played.”
Ostapenko will, no doubt, be able to find some pluses in her US Open campaign, her best since 2015, when she first trekked to New York for the final stop on the Grand Slam rota. In fact, outside of the Australian Open this year, her appearance in the Round of Eight is her best in any major event in half a decade. Clearly, she’s on the rise once more, and she has ample reason to be proud — and, on occasion, loud.
Anthony L. Cuaycong has been writing Courtside since BusinessWorld introduced a Sports section in 1994. He is a consultant on strategic planning, operations and human resources management, corporate communications, and business development.
