The WTA has certainly had a bizarre start to 2016. A first Grand Slam title for Angelique Kerber, a drugs ban for Maria Sharapova, a WTA event where every seed was knocked out in the first round and question marks over the form of most of the top players. Out of the chaos there has been one remarkable feature-–the emergence of a new set of teenagers.
We knew plenty about Belinda Bencic after her breathtaking season last year. This season, though, a new batch of youngsters have shown their worth to the WTA tour in Daria Kasatkina, Naomi Osaka and, to a lesser extent, Maria Sakkari. However possibly the biggest headline maker has been Jelena Ostapenko.
Latvia has never had much tennis pedigree. Ernest Gulbis’s attitude off-court has denied him the right to be a frequent challenger at the uppermost echelons of the ATP Tour, despite his brief moments in the sun. Could it be one of Gulbis’ biggest fans that places Latvian back in tennis’ spotlight?
Eighteen-year-old Jelena Ostapenko has begun carving a name for herself on the WTA Tour and marked this with a run to the final of the Qatar Total Open in Doha, which included her second top ten scalp of her career. She did fall in the final to Spaniard Carla Suarez Navarro but became just the second teenager to reach a Premier 5 final in the last five years, after Belinda Bencic won last year in Toronto.
Possibly the most intriguing aspect of her run in Doha was that it was totally out of the blue. Up until that point her year had been nothing but a concoction of disappointment and controversy. The youngster had played five tournaments, but had claimed just two victories.
Her year really unravelled before it has truly begun in a memorably feisty encounter with Britain’s Naomi Broady. After losing a point, Ostapenko hit a ballboy with her racket after throwing it at the backboard. The Latvian claimed it was accidental whilst Broady called for her disqualification. Although the umpire sided with the Latvian, the backlash she faced afterwards from the media and fellow professionals seemed to have affected her form.
Following her exit in the season opener in Auckland, she looked noticeably shaken. She exited her next three tournaments with just one set to her name and only managed her second victory of the year in mid-February against Nao Hibino. Seemingly suffering mentally, it was difficult to see her put any sort of run together.
So in true WTA fashion, she soared from nowhere to win six matches and reach the Doha final. She saw off Zarina Diyas, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Petra Kvitova, Saisai Zheng and Andrea Petkovic on her way to the final for the loss of one set and suddenly it looks like everything from Auckland had been swept under the carpet. Despite the catalogue of 2016 losses, the Doha run has catapulted the Latvian to #16 in the Race to Singapore.
So where has this teenager come from and why is she such a prospect?
Ostapenko may only be really making her mark on the WTA Tour now but the fact of the matter is that she is not an unknown quantity. She showed her flashing talent in 2014, defeating Kristina Schmiedlova to claim the girls Wimbledon singles title and make her first mark on the tennis world.
Her game itself is aggressive to say the least. Based around an offensive style, the Latvian can generate decent amounts of power off of both wings. She generates relatively little spin in the modern game but with her speed and nimbleness around the court, that does not matter as she is able to hit winners from pretty much anywhere. Her nimbleness probably owes a lot to her seven years as a ballroom dancer in Latvia.
What is perhaps most striking is her total lack of fear on court. She is more than willing to turn defence into attack, most prominently displayed in her desire to attack the second serve of her opponent. The Latvian has seen her attacking prominence benefit her as statistically she is in the top ten for percentage of return games and return points won so far this year.
This lack of fear can also be considered something of a weakness. It means that when things are going right for Ostapenko she is incredibly dangerous, but when she is having a slightly wayward day it all starts to unravel very quickly. Her serve is notoriously temperamental and, being in the top ten for second serve points won, she is also second on the amount of double faults served so far this year on the WTA Tour, only behind Mirjana Lucic-Baroni.
We really should be looking at Ostapenko as a massive talent for the future of women’s tennis though. A lot has been made about how her, Belinda Bencic, and Daria Kasatkina are the first three 18-year-olds to be ranked inside the top 50 since 2009 when Caroline Wozniacki, Anastasia Pavyluchenkova, and Sorana Cirstea completed an identical feat. They all went on to achieve very different things. Might it be the same with these new three? Or could it be that this is these are the really are the future stars of the WTA?
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