Defending champion Jelena Ostapenko suffered a shock first-round exit at the 2018 French Open as she was beaten 7-5 6-3 by World No.66 Kateryna Kozlova.
The Latvian, 20, had a horrendous day on serve and it cost her. She made 13 double faults, only got 47% of her first serves in and only won 14 of the 41 points she played on her second serve.
Ostapenko also made 48 unforced errors during a curiously flat performance that rather sums up her underwhelming year so far.
The Latvian’s struggles began in game three when she dropped her serve for the first time. She then dug in to avoid a double break in game seven after making a string of errors.
After that hold kept the set competitive, Ostapenko stepped up her aggression in the next game. She unleashed a couple of brutal forehands to earn a break point, but failed to convert it.
It did not matter, as the World No.5 won consecutive points from deuce by pushing Kozlova back behind the baseline with her powerful groundstrokes and then finishing the rallies off at the net.
That game started a run of four consecutive breaks which moved the scoreboard along to 6-5 in the Ukrainian’s favour.
And the unseeded player finally capitalised on Ostapenko’s poor first set display when she clinched the set by producing a huge serve at 30-all and following it with a good backhand that forced the Latvian into an error.
Ostapenko continues to struggle
Ostapenko established an early lead in the second set when she hit a brilliant backhand winner to kick-start a run of four points in a row to break Kozlova in the second game.
That should have been the Latvian’s cue to push on and claim the second set. But instead she played an awful game to lose her serve to love, and then slipped 3-2 behind when she dropped serve again in game five.
Ostapenko fought hard to break back, but it did not bring her any benefit as she made three double faults in the next game and was broken for the sixth time in the match.
And this time she was unable to make an impression on Kozlova’s serve as the Ukrainian held comfortably to go 5-3 up.
Fittingly, the World No.66 sealed her big win with another break of the Ostapenko serve. First she punished a weak second serve with a superb forehand winner. Then she profited from three unforced errors from the Latvian to clinch it.
