Jelena Ostapenko on the brink: Five-year ranking low threatens her French Open draw

Yahoo Sports10h ago3 min readOriginal source →

TL;DR

Jelena Ostapenko faces a challenging lead-up to the French Open after losing in the first round of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix, where she was the defending champion. This early exit could impact her ranking and draw for the upcoming tournament.

Key points

Jelena Ostapenko lost in the first round of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix.
She was the defending champion at the tournament.
The match against Ekaterina Alexandrova lasted just under two hours.
Ostapenko's loss comes weeks before the French Open.
Her ranking could be affected by this early exit.

Jelena OstapenkoEkaterina AlexandrovaPorsche Tennis Grand PrixFrench Open

Photo by Robert Prange/Getty Images

Jelena Ostapenko has had her French Open preparations hit hard by an early exit at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart, where she was the defending champion.

Ostapenko, who lifted the trophy in Stuttgart last year, crashed out in the first round this time after a three-set loss to Ekaterina Alexandrova. The match lasted just under two hours, with Alexandrova sealing a 6-4 5-7 6-3 victory.

The defeat comes just a few weeks before the French Open gets underway on May 26. It marks a tough start to Ostapenko’s clay-court campaign as she prepares for Roland Garros.

Jelena Ostapenko set for lowest ranking in three years after Stuttgart loss

Photo by Antonio Borga/Eurasia Sport Images/Getty Images

Ostapenko entered the WTA 500 event ranked 22nd in the world, but with a deep field in Stuttgart, she wasn’t among the seeds.

That set up a tough first-round match against sixth seed Mirra Andreeva, who was coming off a title win last week in Linz – her fifth on the tour.

Even though Ostapenko was the lower-ranked player, she looked strong early and built a 7-5, 2-6, 4-1 lead over Andreeva.

But things started to slip from there. Ostapenko dropped five straight games to lose her opening round match in Stuttgart.

The loss means she’ll drop 499 points from her ranking and currently sits at world number four in the live WTA rankings.

This will be Ostapenko’s lowest ranking since June 2021, and there’s a chance she could slide even further depending on the results from others this week.