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Jelena Ostapenko was relentless in her quick win at the championships Wimbledon Thursday. The 12th seed smashed away at Kirsten Flipkens winning in straight sets 6-1, 6-3 on Court Three at the All England Tennis Club. Ostapenko missed four from her first serve beat the Belgian by 20 points in overall scoring.
The two met twice in 2015 where the Belgian held the Latvian twice at Istanbul and later at an ITF event. It’s been two different paths for the players as Ostapenko has greatly improved her career while Flipkens has been steady through the tour. With a straight sets win over Heather Watson, Flipkens was more than ready to gain more ground in her third meeting. Ostapenko vied to get back into the deep parts of the slam to try and capture a second major title. It would be up to her on whether she could make another strong stance against the 32-year-old.
Ostapenko opened with a break in the first game and took her serve seriously to set up a big play. The Latvian opened the throttle on her service game beating down the Belgian before consolidating that with a double break. Flipkens managed to get a game-winner on the scoreboard for her favor but once the ball went back to Ostapenko, the dictation was too much to overcome. She took the next two swiftly breaking the unseeded player in the seventh to close out the set in 22 minutes.
Ostapenko went flawlessly on first serve points despite serving at 38 percent. The major factor came when she won points against Flipkens’ struggling return game where she landed 4 of 16. While some aspects of the 21-year-old’s offense needing to be tightened, mentally she had the focus to get through the match on her terms.
Not wanting the same results as the first, Flipkens broke the number 12 seed in the opening game but fell into trouble on serve. Ostapenko broke her for a fourth time before adding two more wins for the double break in the set. She coasted to another service hold in the fifth giving her a three-game spread of Flipkens who didn’t have the tools to change the tide of the match.
She stayed on serve to extend the day for herself but couldn’t defend against the Latvian who notched her fifth win on serve. Flipkens served to try and keep the set alive for herself and won a chance to go to deuce with Ostapenko. She had a chance to score a third win on the AD point but the second serve suffered leaving her little option to succeed. A second chance came to her on an Ostapenko unforced error which she capped on a return long from the 12th seed.
Despite losing out on two games, the chance to end the match was alive and kicking for Ostapenko who had the serve in the ninth. She delivered a cross-court winner for match point and put down the finishing touch with Flipkens returning a backhander into the net ending 54 minutes on court.
Ostapenko finished with a low first serve percentage but saw many of her shots land for points 83 percent of the time. The net-front presence during some of her wins on court took much from her four double faults in the match that never allowed Flipkens to turn the tables around. The Latvian’s success will move into Saturday when she faces rookie Vitalia Diatchenko who took out Maria Sharapova in the first round and won in straight sets against Sofia Kenin.
