French Open Roundup 2017 | Jelena Ostapenko stuns Simona Halep to clinch maiden Grand Slam title
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Unseeded Latvian Jelena Ostapenko stunned third seed Simona Halep of Romania 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 to become the youngest player to win the clay court championship since 2004. Meanwhile, Michael Venus and Ryan Harrison also bagged their maiden Grand Slam title in the men's doubles category yesterday.
Jelena Ostapenko's youth outclasses Simona Halep's experience
Jelena Ostapenko became the first Latvian international to win a major Grand Slam title and in doing so prevented Simona Halep from becoming the number one ranked women's singles player in the world.
The 20-year old showed remarkable resilience to claw back into the game after trailing a set behind to become the first unseeded player to win the Grand Slam since 1933. Simona Halep started on the front foot and took the game to the young Latvian and clinching the first set. The Romanian continued her dominance in the second set and took a 3-0 lead over Ostapenko.
However, Ostapenko's attacking brand of tennis disrupted Halep's rhythm and the 20-year old won four back to back games to win the set 6-4 and bring the match to level terms. Halep once again started dictating terms in the third set looking to avoid a second consecutive loss in the French Open finals, the first being to Maria Sharapova in 2014, as she took a promising 3-1 lead over the Latvian youngster.
However, the unseeded Ostapenko once again bounced back and eventually won the match along with the prestigious title 6-3. The 20-year old hit three aces and 54 winners to claim her maiden title.
Michael Venus and Ryan Harrison beat Santiago Gonzalez and Donald Young to claim first Grand Slam title
The men's doubles category was also bound to see the crowning of new title winners as the unseeded pairs of New Zealander Michael Venus and Amercian Ryan Harrison went face to face with Mexican Santiago Gonzalez and American Donald Young. The Kiwi-American duo beat their Mexican-American counterparts in a fierce battle that saw the first two sets going into a tiebreaker to win 7-6(5) 6-7(4) 6-3 and bag their maiden Grand Slam title.
