By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Tuesday September 29, 2020
2017 Roland Garros champion Jelena Ostapenko has been waiting for a chance to reclaim her former glory on the court, and this year she’s feeling confident that she may have a chance to do it in Paris.
There’s one key element that she wants to incorporate: consistency.
I just have to be more confident in my game and more consistent,” Ostapenko said after blasting past American Madison Brengle 6-2 6-1 on Tuesday. “If there is a consistency in my game, I think I'm gonna be a very dangerous player and it's gonna be very, like, not easy to beat me.”
Ostapenko will have to deliver a very good performance if she wants to make it to the third round, as she’ll face No.2-seeded Karolina Pliskova next. Pliskova was able to navigate a tricky encounter with Egyptian qualifier Mayer Sherif on Day 3.
The sixth career meeting between the two heavy-hitters should be a classic battle of first-strike assassins looking to step in and do damage, but on the slower surfaces in Paris this year, it might be necessary to build points more patiently.
Ostapenko will need to show that she can stay in rallies if she is to have a chance to defeat Pliskova.
“Sometimes I feel like I play well, and then some matches I don't play well,” she said. “But if I get my consistency back like in 2017 and beginning of 2018 also, I think I'll be back in like top 10.
The Latvian, a former World No. 5, is currently slotted in at 43 in the world and, just like she was in 2017 in Paris, unseeded.
Perhaps most important, she’s feeling her game more and very positive ahead of her clash with the fourth-ranked Czech.
“I feel like much better than the years before,” she said. “I was practicing a lot. I didn't play the U.S. swing and I was practicing all the time on clay. I was kind of waiting for this clay season. Finally, here we are.”
And, even better, she likes those heavy new Wilson balls that Roland Garros is using for the first time in 2020.
“The balls are different, but I honestly like these Wilson balls,” she said. “I practiced with them like almost two months, and I really loved it.”