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Jelena Ostapenko has made the QF of all 4 slams
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Latvian
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2,941 Posts
It's not really about her racquet but her perfect timing and the way she uses her body to lean into each shot..
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5,661 Posts
Does this make her officially better than Wozniacki now? 
No Wozniacki still far above Ostapenko overall.Does this make her officially better than Wozniacki now?
Ostapenko never even got into the top 4!.
While Wozniacki was 1# for 70 plus weeks...
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18,629 Posts
yea alona is definitely better off the ground, i think maddy's serve makes it even
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16,403 Posts
Yea I'm also interested in the racquet weight. I find her technique really interesting. It appears as though she sometimes catches the ball quite late, yet has fabulous timing simultaneously. It's really intriguing technqiue to me, especially on the FH.
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2,235 Posts
Queen of interviews and on court dramas but not in a bad way at all, in a time when social media is turning everyone into PR machine, she packs a whole bunch of personality and I love her for that.
Win it all Jelena.
Win it all Jelena.
She can find amazing angles on both wings at times, she is a true talent definitely.
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46,322 Posts
please make the semis here, pleaseeeeeeeeeeeee
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560 Posts
I've likened Ostapenko to Wawrinka several times here before. She's never going to have a career of perennial, consistent excellence because of her particular gamestyle, but the top players all know they can be be challenged in matches with her.
I truly believe she has an opportunity to have a Stan-like record in the slams, peaking occasionally to pick up at least one more major before she hangs it up. Remember that she's only just turned 26, which is still relatively young in an era where players can look forward to having much longer careers.
Her issues have always tended to be psychological in origin: doubts on serve leading to an unreliable ball-toss, folding under pressure, choking on big points and occasionally becoming so mired in negativity that she can hit herself quickly out of any match when her risky shots are missing.
Has there ever been a more maligned player on this forum? At times she's been treated as a flat-out laughing stock, which is unfair. The careers of Kenin, Andreescu and Raducanu have shown how difficult it can be to cope with the demands of being a young Slam-winner. I suspect all three of those players would love to swim in the relatively calm waters of a consistent Top Twenty place as they try to get to their careers back on track.
Last night's win was a redemption of sorts. And it should be celebrated because Penko is box office. In an age when we—perhaps unfairly—demand that our sporting heroes possess charisma as well as skill, Jelena's singular brand of it shines on the bigger stages.
I truly believe she has an opportunity to have a Stan-like record in the slams, peaking occasionally to pick up at least one more major before she hangs it up. Remember that she's only just turned 26, which is still relatively young in an era where players can look forward to having much longer careers.
Her issues have always tended to be psychological in origin: doubts on serve leading to an unreliable ball-toss, folding under pressure, choking on big points and occasionally becoming so mired in negativity that she can hit herself quickly out of any match when her risky shots are missing.
Has there ever been a more maligned player on this forum? At times she's been treated as a flat-out laughing stock, which is unfair. The careers of Kenin, Andreescu and Raducanu have shown how difficult it can be to cope with the demands of being a young Slam-winner. I suspect all three of those players would love to swim in the relatively calm waters of a consistent Top Twenty place as they try to get to their careers back on track.
Last night's win was a redemption of sorts. And it should be celebrated because Penko is box office. In an age when we—perhaps unfairly—demand that our sporting heroes possess charisma as well as skill, Jelena's singular brand of it shines on the bigger stages.
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17,148 Posts
I think this is true but she needs her Magnus Norman
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2,454 Posts
I love Oyster, but this is overselling her quite a bit. Her brand of tennis doesn't allow for any margin, which is obviously going to result in messy matches and poor losses. It's easy to see her potential when she beats players like Iga, whose rally ball sits up right in her strike zone. But she flat out refuses to make any adjustments when someone is going toe to toe with her in flatness of shot, which causes her to overhit. Alyona lives and dies by the sword, that's a choice and not a psychological issue.
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560 Posts
I don't think I'm over-selling her at all. You make it sound like the Swiatek rally-ball is some kind of lame duck which EVERYONE on tour tees-off on on a consistent basis. Which is clearly not the case.
I can think of only one match Ostapenko lost this year when someone went toe to toe with her, flat-hitting from the baseline and came out on top. That was against Samsonova in Madrid. The other type of player she's struggled with lately have been the truly elite servers: Rybakina and Sabalenka, who can simply take the racket out of her hand with dominant serving displays, not even allowing her into points. In recent matches against them though Aljona has been their equal off the ground if—and it's a big 'if'—getting a read on their serves and starting ground exchanges. Against any other type of opponent, grinders, retrievers, touch players I feel like Penko can drop serve, but expect to break her opponent back at any given time. Such matches are necessarily chaotic and that characterises the wins in rounds one to three in NYC.
To my mind there are three dominant servers left in the tournament: Keys, Sabalenka herself, and potentially, Quinwen. They are all on the other side of the draw. If playing with focus and confidence Ostapenko can feel good about her chances of making the final.
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I'm not. Tennis is a match up based sport. Iga's rally ball is too much for most of the tour to handle, otherwise she would not have been so consistent and achieved what she has. But for Alyona specifically, it sits up nicely.
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This is obviously a great achievement. Well done, Aljona.
And then you see Djokovic made QFs at all GSs this year alone. For the 8th time.
And then you see Djokovic made QFs at all GSs this year alone. For the 8th time.
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4,486 Posts
She’s also had a great career and that will never change eitherAnd she will remain a 1 slam wonder.
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For sure it is also about the technique, but looking at the plow through she gets, it does look like she'd also have a fair amount of swingweight. The racket goes through the ball like butter. Another player it reminds me of is Kvitova.
Did some minor searching on the internet and found some posts on another forum mentioning commentators in some of her matches had said she has quite a bit of lead on her racquet. Rather vague though, this info. Tennisnerd, whose niche is talking about racquets, makes a mention of this. This is from after she won Roland Garros in 2017:
Jelena Ostapenko's Racquet
Latvian 20-year-old Jelena Ostapenko came from nowhere and won the French Open and now she’s just won her first round in Wimbledon. What racquet does she use? Ostapenko is swinging a lime green and black Wilson racquet knows at the Wilson Blade 98 LE (limited edition) strung with Luxilon 4G...
tennisnerd.net
There was also this post on this forum by @Aaron. It lists Ostapenko's swingweight among the heavier ones, but there's no mention of the source for this info. Maybe Aaron can chime in:
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