WTA Stuttgart, Jelena Ostapenko surprises everyone: Aryna Sabalenka goes down

More than a year after her previous success on the circuit, Jelena Ostapenko surprised everyone by defeating Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka, world No. 1, in the final of the Stuttgart tournament, a WTA 500 that has been played since 1978. Ostapenko, currently number 24 in the world, won 6-4, 6-1, in one’hour and twenty-six minutes of play.

That it was not an easy day for Sabalenka was immediately apparent from the first game, when the Latvian won the game on the Belarusian’s serve. Sabalenka was then good at coming back from 2-4 to 4-4, but then gave way to her opponent, who was more polished in the decisive moments of the set and was able to close the fraction by taking advantage of the third set point.

The Latvian’s opponent was able to win the game on her serve.

Ostapenko was then nothing short of ruthless in the next fraction, in which she snatched as many as four games on serve from Sabalekna, who seemed unrecognizable compared to her recent successes. Thus, it was the Latvian, in her ninth victory on the main circuit, the first of which was at Roland Garros 2017, who won even then by overturning the odds.

The Latvian was the winner.

Jelena Ostapenko (who had not won since the Linz tournament in February 2024) is the first athlete from Latvia to conquer the Stuttgart tournament, which on the other hand once again proves to be a real taboo for Aryna Sabalenka, in her fourth final lost in the last five editions (in 2021 against Ashleigh Barty and in the next two editions against Iga Swiatek).