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By Chris Oddo | Tuesday July 10, 2018

 
Jelena Ostapenko

Pressure-free and loving the grass, Jelena Ostapenko is a true threat to win Wimbledon.

Photo Source: Michael Steele/Getty

Wimbledon, England—Relentless, recharged and pressure free—Jelena Ostapenko is in the zone again.

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The Latvian has rolled into the quarterfinals at Wimbledon for the second consecutive year, trampling opponents without the loss of the set, and it could just be the beginning from the galactic ball-striker, because when she plays free danger lurks for the competition.

And this year there is an added dimension: Ostapenko has decided that grass is her friend. She probably recognized that last year en route to the quarterfinals but this year she really seems to be embracing Wimbledon’s perennial ryegrass as her own personal stomping grounds.

Tennis Express

“I think grass is, like, for somebody is a tricky surface,” she said on Monday after waltzing past Aliaksandra Sasnovich, 7-6(4), 6-0 (she trailed 5-2 in the set one before super-charging her game). “I really like to play on grass. I enjoy it so much. But for some players, I think it's not their best surface.”

Ostapenko has turned in bagel sets in each of her last two victories, a sign that she doesn’t just have opponents on their back foot—she has them utterly dazed.


She can be painfully problematic when she finds her rhythm and starts hammering away from the baseline, because she is capable of slipping into an almost tantric see-ball-hit-ball mode, and she does so backed by pristine technique and core strength that allows her to generate wicked racquet head speed. It all adds up to an explosion of winners and a lot of fatigued faces on the other side of the net.

That’s what a relaxed Ostapenko is capable of.

“I had all that pressure, now it's gone,” Ostapenko said on Monday, referring to her botched title defense at Roland Garros, which ended in a first-round loss to Kateryna Kozlova. “Finally it's gone. Now it's another tournament, another great opportunity for me.”

It’s true that the Latvian has been a little hit or miss this year. She entered Wimbledon with a 14-13 record overall. But we all know what she’s capable of, and here at Wimbledon she has gone from hit-and-miss to hitting hard and unafraid to miss.

It’s working so far, and she’ll try to keep it going on Tuesday when she faces Dominika Cibulkova in quarterfinal action on No.1 Court.

“Yeah, I'm just not afraid to miss,” she said. “I'm just going for the shots. I think I'm serving very well this tournament. In general, I think my level is much better than last Grand Slam.”

 

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