Ballroom teen queen Ostapenko in French Open quarters

05 Jun, 2017

Latvian teenager Jelena Ostapenko reached her first Grand Slam quarter-final on Sunday with a 2-6, 6-2, 6-4 win over 2010 runner-up Samantha Stosur. Ostapenko, 19, who uses ballroom dancing as part of her training regime, hit 46 winners past the 23rd-seeded Australian, a semi-finalist last year. Ostapenko will take on 11th seed Caroline Wozniacki for a place in the semi-finals.
She has beaten Wozniacki, who also made the last eight in 2010, on all three occasions they have met. Two of those came on clay this year, in Charleston and Prague. "If I play my game, I'm an aggressive player and if I have my day, anything can happen," said Ostapenko. Stosur, meanwhile, said her challenge was undermined by a right hand injury which meant she was unable to practise before the tie. "My hand's been sore for about three or four days since the day I played doubles here. Don't know what's wrong with it," said the 33-year-old. "But from 5-1 in the first set, it was just really, really painful and just wasn't going away."

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