WTA: Jelena Ostapenko: Quickly stamped

With her French Open victory, Jelena Ostapenko played herself a national heroine in Latvia and was even immortalized on a stamp. However, it was quickly sold out.

“I was very surprised, not many athletes in Latvia get their own stamp”, Ostapenko explained,”When I heard it, I was very happy because it’s a big deal. They made 55,000 pieces – and they were gone on the first day.”

I thought I was quite popular, but I didn’t think I’d sell 55,000 stamps in one day.”

Will there be a stamp reissue soon? A further major triumph could help here, but the start of the year for Ostapenko was only as lala: At the invitation tournament in Abu Dhabi, she stepped in for an exhibition fight against Serena Williams at short notice and won, and at her official tournament participations in Shenzhen and Sydney, she suffered direct defeats at the start.

In Melbourne, the Latvian made it better: 6-1,6-4 over the Italian Francesca Schiavone, next Wednesday’s opponent is Ying-Ying Duan.