Ostapenko’s difficult task in Rome – to remain in the top ten of the world ranking – Tennis – Sportacentrs.com

# The first racket of the Baltics will compete today Alon Ostapenko (WTA No. 10) and Anastasia Potapova (#43), who was ranked No. 21 in the world last June.

• So far, Ostapenko won the only match between them last year on the lawn of Birmingham – 5:7, 6:2, 6:4.

• In 2024, Ostapenko’s record is 21-9, while Potapova has accumulated 13-9.

• Ostapenko has a career record of 10-13 (including 8-6 since mid-May last year) against so-called neutral tennis players.

• During her career, the 26-year-old Ostapenko has won eight WTA tournaments, including the Adelaide “WTA 500” in January and the Linz “WTA 500” in February. The 23-year-old Potapova has two “WTA 250” titles – in Istanbul (2022) and Linz (2023).

• At the Grand Slam level, Ostapenko has a French Open title (2017) and a Wimbledon semifinal (2018), while Potapova reached the third round at the Australian Open (2021), French Open (2023) and Wimbledon (2023).

• Potapova is 6-15 against current top 10 players, including 0-3 this year and 4-4 last year.

• In the Madrid tournament, Ostapenko will start for the ninth time (the best achievement is the semi-finals last year). Potapova is competing here for the fourth time (she reached the third round last year).

• It is thought that the Latvian tennis player must reach at least 1/4 finals in Rome in order to hope to stay in the top ten of the world ranking.

• In the first round of the current tournament, Anastasia Potapova (#43) defeated (6:1, 7:5) the Chinese Xia Wang (#53), while Ostapenko will start with the second round.

• During the match, it could be 25-26 degrees in Rome, rain is possible.

• The winner of today’s duel will advance to the third round, where she will face Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (#21) or Spain’s Sara Sorrives (#47).

Resources used:
wtatennis.com