Jelena Ostapenko, Latvia not literate, Rallies to win the Open de France

Jelena Ostapenko, Latvia not literate, Rallies to win the Open de France

PARIS — Skipping the usual base stations, Jelena Ostapenko climbed straight to one of tennis’s major summits on Saturday, winning her first WTA Tour title at the French Open.

Her stunning run in Paris — capped by a 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 comeback win over third-seeded Simona Halep in the final — made her the first Latvian to win a Grand Slam singles title.

It also made her the first unseeded woman to triumph at Roland Garros since Margaret Scriven of England in 1933, when the tournament was known as the French Championships.

Halep, a 25-year-old Romanian, would have secured the No. 1 ranking by winning, but she faltered, just as she did in 2014, when she lost her first French Open final in three sets to Maria Sharapova.

Like Sharapova, Ostapenko is a powerful and fearless hitter from the baseline, addicted to risk and capable of producing winners and unforced errors in flurries.

There were 54 of each against Halep, a statistic unlikely to startle those who had watched Ostapenko slug and shrug her way through the six matches leading to the final.

“At some points, I was like a spectator on the court,” Halep said.

Ostapenko set the tone from the first rally on Saturday, winning it with a big backhand down the line that Halep could not handle. She broke Halep at love in that opening game with a bolt of a backhand winner down the line.

Though Ostapenko would have plenty of wobbles and misfires in the taut moments to come, she never gave the impression that she was out of her element.

After rallying from deficits of 0-3 in the second set and 1-3 in the third, she finished the way she had started, nervelessly nailing a backhand return winner down the line to complete one of the most unexpected title runs in tennis’s long history.

“I mean, I think I cannot believe I am Roland Garros champion, and I am only 20 years old,” Ostapenko said.

She turned 20 during the tournament and was still a teenager when she lost the first set of her first-round match against Louisa Chirico of the United States. But Ostapenko rallied, as she would against two more experienced players — the 2011 United States Open champion Sam Stosur in the fourth round, and the former world No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki in the quarterfinals.

Add Halep to the list. Despite her 3-1 lead in the third set on Saturday, she could not hold off Ostapenko, whose power comes from her sturdy lower body, her exquisite timing and the lightning-quick speed of her racket head.

“All the credit for what you have done this tournament,” Halep said to her opponent in the postmatch ceremony. “It’s an amazing thing. Enjoy it. Be happy, and keep it going, because you are like a kid.”

There have been plenty of players who were even younger when they became Grand Slam champions. Tracy Austin, Monica Seles and Martina Hingis were all 16 when they won their first major singles titles. Serena Williams won her first at 17.

But the women’s game has been trending older, with Williams’s enduring success and with improvements in diet and training methods, which allow players to remain contenders longer.

At 20, Ostapenko is the youngest French Open champion since Iva Majoli, who won at 19 in 1997. There was a clear opportunity for a breakthrough at this French Open, with Ostapenko’s childhood idol, Williams, now 35, taking a hiatus for the birth of her first child, and with No. 1 Angelique Kerber in an extended slump.

But few would have imagined that Ostapenko, who had not gone past the third round in her first seven Grand Slam singles tournaments, would be the one to capitalize. Before arriving in Paris, she had prize earnings of $1,288,260 for her entire career. Saturday’s victory was worth $2,351,097.

“We didn’t have the big names here,” said Chris Evert, the seven-time French Open champion. “But I tell you what: A star was born today, and I’ve got to say, it’s so great for women’s tennis. We need fresh young blood.”

It may also be good for female coaches, who remain a rarity on the WTA Tour. Ostapenko was long coached by her mother, Jelena, and she added Anabel Medina Garrigues, a fine clay-court player from Spain, to her coaching team in April.

“Of course, it was always nice to work with my mom,” Ostapenko said in a postmatch interview, “but the thing that she’s my mom and coach sometimes is also tough because we see each other almost 24 hours a day, and sometimes we get tired of each other.

“We added something different just to see if it works, and I think it worked pretty well.”

Ostapenko’s relentless, tight-to-the-baseline playing style has elicited comparisons to a young Seles. But unlike Ostapenko, Seles hit with two hands on both her forehand and her backhand. Seles was also a much more unflappable competitor and a consistent ball striker.

Ostapenko has tended to be unpredictable and volatile. Last year she threw a racket during a tournament in Auckland, New Zealand, and it bounced off the court and struck a ball boy. She said she had worked on her composure. But on Saturday there were still plenty of shrieks and wounded glances in the direction of her support team. She even gestured at her mother to leave the stadium at one stage.

“Of course, I should not do this, but I was so emotional,” Ostapenko said.

Her mother stayed put, and Ostapenko held it together when it mattered most. She will now climb from No. 47 in the world rankings to No. 12.

The last woman to win her first tour title at a Grand Slam was Barbara Jordan of the United States at the 1979 Australian Open. The last man to manage it was Gustavo Kuerten, who won the 1997 French Open on the day that Ostapenko was born in the Latvian capital, Riga.

Kuerten made an appearance at Roland Garros this year and said he had arrived in Paris in 1997 with the goal of winning just one match.

Ostapenko certainly was not planning on going all the way, either, but she knew her potential.

“If I have really good day and I’m hitting really well,” she said, “I think anything is possible.”