Few tennis fans will forget Jelena Ostapenko belting 54 winners past Simona Halep to stun the Romanian favourite in the final of Roland Garros in 2017.
She completed that breakthrough fortnight with an astonishing total of 299 winners – a tournament high for both women and men that year – and five years on, continues to remind us of her prodigious ball-striking skills.
Ostapenko crushed another 38 winners in a 6-1 6-4 victory over Italy’s Lucia Bronzetti on Tuesday; midway through the second set the winner tally was 24-1 in favour of the former world No.5, who has struggled to consistently replicate her major-winning highs in subsequent seasons.
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Yet despite consensus she needed to temper her high-risk game, Ostapenko decided this was not the way forward.
“I was trying to be more consistent, but then I was losing too many matches,” she said.
“I think if I'm taking risk and just going for it, and moving my feet well – I think everything depends on my feet. If I move my feet well, I feel the ball really well, and I can strike a lot of winners.
“Again today I felt like I was also stepping in the court and it was really hard for the opponent to hold my pace.”
Ostapenko has shown glimpses of the form that made her unstoppable five years ago in Paris, a time she described as “easier” given she was young, unseeded and comparatively unknown to opponents.
“(Now) it's a little bit different. But I still feel if I play my game and if I'm confident I can make some damage on the tour,” she said.
She inflicted that damage on a tear through the Middle East earlier this year, capturing the Dubai title – notching four consecutive wins over major champions – and extending her unbeaten streak to nine matches with a semifinal finish in Doha.
She is the last person to have beaten dominant world No.1 Iga Swiatek – that happened in the last 16 in Dubai – and it was vintage Ostapenko in a quarterfinal dismissal of Garbine Muguruza in Doha, a match during which the Latvian struck 39 clean winners to beat the Spaniard in just over an hour.
Those results helped elevate her to world No.11 in April, her highest ranking since September 2018.
But the current No.13 then lost opening-round matches at Indian Wells, Miami, Madrid and Rome, arriving at Roland Garros on a five-match losing streak spanning 89 days.
89 - Jelena #Ostapenko has won her first match since Doha against Muguruza 89 days ago, ending a five match losing streak - the second longest of her career. Relief.@WTA @WTA_insider pic.twitter.com/DXd7AwTRAw
— OptaAce (@OptaAce) May 24, 2022
“First of all, I don't think it was really long; and second of all, I was injured. In Miami I was already injured,” she countered, explaining that a wrist injury had forced her to take two weeks off and withdraw from Billie Jean King Cup and Stuttgart.
“(Coming back in) Rome and Madrid was also tough… you feel like you still have pain but you don't really have pain. It needs some time to get rid of those thoughts.
“When I'm practising, I'm playing really, really well… Like, I play against good girls, some points, and most of them I win, really… not easy, but quite easy. Then sometimes I go on the court to play a match and I'm a completely different player. Then I'm like, What's happening with me on the matches?
“So I felt like I have to bring this tennis (in practice) to the tournament. I think today was much, much better.”
Her performance against Bronzetti was, for the most part, as comprehensive as it gets; she led 6-1, 3-1, 30-0 before the young Italian made the closing stages more competitive.
Ostapenko progressed in a brisk 67 minutes to set a second-round showdown with Alize Cornet.
Ominously for the veteran Frenchwoman, Ostapenko said she found Tuesday’s heavier conditions sub-optimal, and was looking forward to the warm, sunny conditions forecast for the next week in Paris.
“I think it's even better for me when someone is cheering against me, I'm more focused and playing much better,” she added.
“Of course (Cornet is) a good player, and it's going to be a tough match, but I also feel like it's her home, so maybe she's going to have more pressure than me.
“I'm just looking forward to it. I think if I'm going to play the same way as I played today, it can be a good match.”
Beyond that, interestingly, could come back-to-back rematches with Halep and Swiatek in rounds three and four.
Ostapenko is a combined 5-1 against both fellow Roland Garros champions.
“It's really special place for me of course,” Ostapenko said.
“I really love to play here.”