On clay, Ostapenko achieved her most impressive success to date, winning the Paris Open in 2017 Grand Slam, but this season, after the successful first months of the year, the transition to tennis turned out to be difficult. First, Latvia’s leading tennis player did not quite successfully play in the Billie Jean King tournament in Portugal, but a week ago she lost to the Czech Linda Noskova in the first round of the Stuttgart competition with 3-6, 1-6. As one of the seeded tennis players, Alona could start the tournament in Madrid from the second round, in which she lost the first game of her serve against the Spaniard Bousas-Maneiro, but dominated the court from the middle of the first set and won 6-3, 6-1. Her opponent in the third round became known on Thursday evening in the duel between Argentine Maria Carla (82nd) and neutral athlete Veronika Kudermetova (19th).
For several weeks now, Ostapenko has strengthened herself in the tenth position of the world ranking. During the clay court season, she has to defend the highest number of ranking points in mid-May, when the 390 points earned for reaching the semi-finals of the Rome tournament will expire. Another 70 points must be defended in Paris, where a year ago the second of the season Grand Slam Ostapenko was eliminated in the second round. It should be noted that on clay pavement Roland Garros the Olympic tournament will also be played on the courts in the summer.
