Already in the first week, the Australian Open gives a bunch of sensations and bright episodes. Actually, this is what distinguishes Grand Slam tournaments from other competitions of the tour.

Nerves are on edge, the stakes are high, and therefore inexplicable things often happen. Elena Ostapenko in the second round match was on the verge of hysteria already in the middle of the first set.

She yelled at the coach and spoke obscenely about the organization of the tournament. If not for these emotions, then the girl would have lost the match for sure.

Terrible court

As you know, the start of the tournament in Melbourne was overshadowed by weather disasters: either unbearable heat or downpours forced the organizers to postpone games on open courts. Of course, the Australian Open team is not to blame for the weather anomalies, but the Latvian tennis player Elena Ostapenko found something to complain about.

The first racket of her country and the owner of one victory at the Grand Slam (Roland Garros-2017) lost her temper in the second round in the match with Anna Bondar from Hungary already in the first set. The key, as is commonly believed, the seventh game, the 17th racket of the world lost on her serve, after which she shouted: “I can’t play in this asshole.”

In addition, she complained that the match had already been lost, and on top of everything else, she suggested that the coach leave the stands, having quarreled with him during the pause between games. Few spectators came to the game, so everyone heard her negotiations with the mentor.

Photo: © Kelly Defina / Stringer / Getty Images Sport / Gettyimages.ru

Ostapenko benefited from this emotional shake-up: losing 3:5, she pulled out the first set in a tie-break (7:6), then lost the second set 5:7 and, as is often the case in women’s tennis, brought her opponent to zero in the decisive set. Real swing.

The match lasted 2 hours and 37 minutes, and the Latvian athlete reached the third round in Australia for the fourth time in her career.

Not the first time

It must be said that this is not the first time the 25-year-old girl allows herself such behavior. Two years ago, in the first round of the WTA tournament in Melbourne, she met with Italian Sara Errani and also started the match unsuccessfully.

In the course of the first set, Elena asked her mother to kick the coach (Thomas Hogstedt) from the stands, complained that her opponent was playing her best match, and said that she was losing to no one. The first set was still lost, but even then the shake-up gave impetus to victory: the second and third sets were left for the representative of Latvia.

Photo: © Kelly Defina / Stringer / Getty Images Sport / Gettyimages.ru

No less scandalous was the game at Wimbledon in the same 2021. In the match against Australian Ayla Tomljanovich, Elena, losing 0:4 in the third set, asked for a medical break, which seemed very suspicious to her opponent.

You know she’s lying, right? We all know. You can also call the supervisor, – Ayla hinted at the rival’s cunning, who thus wanted to bring down the Australian victorious mood.

The pause dragged on, but it still did not save Elena from defeat. The girls did not approach the handshake net for a long time, and then they did it very coldly. After losing the duel, Ostapenko told Ayla that her behavior was terrible. This skirmish divided the fans into two parts: someone remained on the side of Tomljanovich, while others rightly suggested that Ostapenko could have been injured.

Obviously, Elena’s character, like that of any great athlete, is not the easiest, and in every game you can expect a hurricane of emotions from her. Whether this helps to achieve a result or there is no relationship here is difficult to say.

However, in the next meeting against the 95th racket of the world Katerina Beindl, she can achieve an exceptional achievement for herself – for the first time reaching the 1/8 finals of the Australian Open. And for the sake of this, Ostapenko will definitely be ready for any remarks.