Ostapenko is 43rd in the WTA rank, but Plishkov is the fourth racket on the planet and was sown with the second number in Paris.
For reaching the third round, the 2017 “French Open” champion Ostapenko has earned 130 WTA ranking points.
Ostapenko is the fifth French Open championship in her career, and she overcame the first round only this year and in 2017, when she sensationally triumphed in the tournament and achieved one of the greatest successes in the history of Latvian sports.
In the fight for the eighth final, Ostapenko will compete with American Sloeev Stevens (WTA 34th) or Spanish Paul Bados Hiberta (WTA 87).
Ostapenko twice broke the opponent at the start of the match, but lost his first serve. In the middle of the set, the two tennis players exchanged breaks again, but the advantage of one point at the beginning later allowed Ostapenko to set the set with 6-4.
At the beginning of the second set, she also deprived the Czech of the serve and was close to it in the fifth game, where the opponent played the break ball and did not reach the edge of the abyss yet. However, she took away the next service for Plīškova and got the right to serve for the victory in the match. The title opponent played the first two match balls, but with the third Ostapenko put an end to the fight – 6-2.
“The start of the game was difficult because she served very well. I realized she needed to serve well, tried to keep up and be aggressive without making mistakes. To win her, she had to show her best game,” Ostapenko said after the match.
Three years ago, she won the first and so far only Grand Slam title for Latvia in the court named after Philip Shatri.
“This card is very special to me. I finally have the opportunity to play in the presence of a few spectators. I have very pleasant memories of playing on this card,” Ostapenko said.
Both tennis players performed two elusive servings in this match. This time Ostapenko accumulated only three double mistakes, which is unusually small for her, but Plīškova had four.
In this match, too, the Latvian tennis player had a clear advantage in the points scored with attack shots (27/9), moreover, she also had fewer unforced errors (19/25).
The two tennis players have met six times, of which Ostapenko has won three. The first meeting was in the 2016 Cincinnati tournament, with the Czech Republic succeeding. She also won another victory in the Australian Open a year later, but later that year her first success over Pliskov WTA “Finals” was won by Ostapenko.
The next time the tennis players met was in Stugart last year, the Czech Republic celebrated its third success in mutual games. In turn, the last meeting was a year ago, when in the first round of the Beijing WTA “Premier” tournament Ostapenko celebrated the victory with 7-5, 3-6, 7-5.
In the first round, Ostapenko beat the American Madison Brengl (WTA 77) with the result 6-2, 6-1. Meanwhile, in the first round, Plishkov defeated Maya Sheriff (WTA 172) 6-7 (9:11), 6-2, 6-4 – the first Egyptian tennis player to play in the Grand Slam main event.
During her career, Plīškov, who was once at the top of the ranking, won 16 WTA singles, which is 13 more than Ostapenko, but, unlike the Latvian tennis player, she has not won any “Grand Slam” trophies. She was closest to it at the 2016 US Open, when she reached the final, losing to Angelika Kerber in three sets. Like Ostapenko, Plīškova’s “French Open” was the most successful in 2017, when she reached the semi-finals, acknowledging the superiority of Romanian Simon Halepa.
Plīškova, who is successful, has a national career, in which she triumphed over the Federation in the Cup.
This is Ostapenko’s third tournament since the season resumed. After losing in the first round of the WTA “Premier 5” tournament in Rome last week, Latvia’s first racket reached the quarterfinals of the WTA “International” series tournament in Strasbourg, where Nao Hibino, a Japanese woman, lost her abdominal pain on Thursday.
This season, Ostapenko’s balance in the WTA tournaments is seven wins and five losses, but Pliskov has achieved 14 successes and seven failures.
The Czech tennis player won the Brisbane tournament at the start of the season, but her performance was unstable. After relaunching the season in New York, she lost in the first game of the Premier 5 tournament and then stopped in the second round of the US Open, but after returning to Europe, she reached the final in Rome, where she left in the second set due to a thigh injury.
Ostapenko also participates in doubles competitions in this tournament, where he usually starts together with Canadian Gabriel Dabrovsky. The Latvian-Canadian duo has reached the second round.
Meanwhile, Latvia’s second racket Anastasija Sevastova “French Open” is not starting and has finished the season, but Ernests Gulbis did not overcome the first round of qualification.
The Roland Garros tournament was due to take place this year from May 25 to June 7, but in mid-March it was moved to autumn and is the last Grand Slam of the season.
The tournament takes place on clay.
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