Jelena Ostapenko
Jelena Ostapenko won the 2017 French Open as an unseeded 20-year-old, beating Simona Halep 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 to become the first Latvian Grand Slam singles champion and the first unseeded women’s champion in Paris since 1933. It remains one of the most improbable major titles of the modern era, and it was the first tour-level title of her career.
Nine years on she is ranked World No. 32, with nine WTA singles titles and a career high of World No. 5 behind her. She also owns the tour’s most striking head-to-head record: 6-0 against Iga Świątek. In July 2026 she won the Wimbledon mixed doubles title with Marcelo Arevalo, becoming only the seventh woman in 60 years to win majors in singles, doubles and mixed doubles.
Player Profile
| Full name | Jelena Ostapenko |
|---|---|
| Date of birth | 8 June 1997 |
| Birthplace | Riga, Latvia |
| Nationality | Latvian |
| Height | 5ft 10in / 177cm |
| Plays | Right-handed (two-handed backhand) |
| Turned pro | 2012 |
| Coach | Stas Khmarsky |
| Highest ranking | World No. 5 |
| WTA titles | 9 singles, 12 doubles |
| Grand Slam titles | 1 singles, 1 doubles, 1 mixed |
Current Ranking & Recent Form
| Wimbledon 2026 | Third round in singles, beaten by world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka 6-4, 6-4; won the mixed doubles title with Marcelo Arevalo to complete a career boxed set of major titles |
|---|---|
| Eastbourne Open 2026 | Semi-finalretired against Tatjana Maria after taking a set |
| French Open 2026 | Second round — beaten by Magda Linette in three sets at the tournament she won in 2017 |
| Italian Open 2026 | Quarter-final — reached the last eight in Rome before losing to Sorana Cirstea |
| Qatar Open 2026 | Semi-finalher best run of the season, losing to Victoria Mboko |
| Stuttgart Open 2025 | Championher ninth WTA singles title, beating world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka 6-4, 6-1 in the final |
| US Open 2024 | Championin the women's doubles alongside Lyudmyla Kichenok |
Playing Style & Strengths
Ostapenko is the tour's definitive first-strike ball-striker. She hits flat and early off both wings and aims for the corners, and the shorthand pundits use, see ball and hit winner, is close to literal. The forehand produces outright winners and the two-handed backhand finishes down the line, and her hand-eye coordination and footwork are elite: she competed in ballroom dancing as a child, which is routinely cited as the reason someone taking cuts that big moves that well.
The same approach explains both the ceiling and the floor. On her day she can beat anyone, which is how a 20-year-old won Roland-Garros unseeded and how she beat Aryna Sabalenka in the 2025 Stuttgart final. When the timing is off there is no fallback plan, and her serve has been the long-running weakness: she led the WTA in double faults in both 2017 and 2019, with 436 in 2019 alone.
Her record against Świątek is worth treating as a matchup rather than a curiosity. Six wins from six across multiple surfaces comes from taking time away from a player whose own game depends on setting up heavy topspin, and it is the clearest single illustration of what her flat, early hitting does to a rhythm player.
Grand Slam Finals
| Year | Grand Slam | Final opponent | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | French Open | Simona Halep | Won 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 |
Head-to-Head Records
| Opponent | Ostapenko | Opp. | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Iga Świątek | 6 | 0 | Ostapenko has won all six meetings across multiple surfaces, the only unbeaten active record against Świątek, and her flat early hitting is the reason |
| Alex Eala | 1 | 2 | Eala leads; Ostapenko won their 2026 Linz meeting 6-4, 7-5 after losing at Miami 2025 and retiring injured in a 2025 meeting |
Ostapenko Betting Tips & Predictions
Ostapenko is the definition of a high-variance play, and pricing her sensibly means pricing the matchup rather than the ranking. She has beaten world No. 1s and won a major from nowhere, and her 6-0 record against Świątek shows that against rhythm players who need time she is frequently a live underdog whatever the ranking gap.
The counterweight is the double-fault record and a streaky floor: she has gone out in the first round of a large share of her 2026 events. Backing her as a short favourite has been the least reliable way to use her. Compare the markets across our best tennis betting sites and the current tennis betting offers before backing her.
Follow our tennis betting tips for the latest Jelena Ostapenko predictions.
18+ | Please Gamble Responsibly | Odds approximate at time of writing
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