Ostapenko seals Adelaide International semi-final spot

Melissa Woods | January 11, 2024

Firebrand Latvian Jelena Ostapenko is the first player through to the women’s semi-finals at the Adelaide International.

The world No.12 showed no signs of the leg pains that hampered her previous match, overcoming Ukrainian prodigy Marta Kostyuk 7-5 6-3 at Memorial Drive on Thursday.

Ostapenko, who made headlines last week in Brisbane for calling Norwegian chair umpire Julie Kjendlie “blind” during a loss, kept her cool against her 21-year-old opponent.

The 26-year-old, who on the back of the win returns to the top 10 for the first time since 2018, fired 30 winners against the world No.41.

Ostapenko let a 5-2 lead in the first set slip, allowing Kostyuk to level at 5-5, but then regained focus to clinch the first set.

The second was a more comfortable affair for the 2017 French Open champion.

“It was a tough match but finally I won in two sets, I managed it,” said Ostapenko, who had a gruelling three-set win over French shotmaker Caroline Garcia in the previous round.

“I feel like I was striking the ball well today. Even in the first set when it was 5-2 to 5-5, I still was playing my game, and then at the end I found it, so I’m just happy to be through.”

Ostapenko will face the winner of the quarter-final between top seed, world No. 3 Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan, and Russian Ekaterina Alexandrova.

That clash is last on centre court on Thursday night.