By Erik Gudris | @atntennis | Wednesday, April 2, 2025
Photo credit: Charleston Tennis LLC
CHARLESTON – Jelena Ostapenko is very comfortable playing both singles and doubles at multiple events.
In fact, so far this season, her doubles ranking at World No. 4 is actually right now higher than her singles ranking at World No. 25. Yet the 27-year-old Latvian and former 2017 Roland Garros singles champion has her eyes set on more glory playing solo.
On Wednesday, she took the first step at the WTA 500 Credit One Charleston Open by defeating Louisa Chirico 7-5, 6-2 to reach the third round.
Jelena Ostapenko advances into R3 over Louisa Chirico 75 62. #CharlestonOpen pic.twitter.com/Rdr9ZTHBgt
— Erik Gudris (@ATNtennis) April 2, 2025
The win snapped a four-match singles losing streak for Ostapenko, stretching back to Doha earlier this year, where she reached the final before losing to Amanda Anisimova.
A few hours later, Ostapenko teamed up with Erin Routliffe at the top seeds to reach the doubles semifinals 7-5, 6-3 in an entertaining win over Ekaterina Alexandrova and Hao-Ching Chan.
“I think it’s always great to use doubles for practice because it’s another match and just practice, because I feel like sometimes you can play super well in the practice, but then you go out to play a match and you cannot bring the same game to the match. I just like to play doubles with good doubles partners,” Ostapenko said afterward.
The Latvian star has enjoyed significant success in doubles this season. That included reaching the Australian Open finals with Su-Wei Hsieh before they lost to eventual champions Taylor Townsend and Katarina Siniakova.
Mighty effort by Su wei Hsieh & Jelena Ostapenko and our team to reach the final….missed out on the chocolates but couldn’t have fought harder, which is all you can ask. pic.twitter.com/BMVq892GWI
— Paul McNamee (@PaulFMcNamee) January 26, 2025
Ostapenko, since then, has played with several other players but plans to team up again with Hsieh for the clay events in Madrid and Rome before competing at Roland Garros.
In singles Ostapenko can now look forward to facing defending champion Danielle Collins in the third round. Ostapenko believes she and Collins feature similar game styles and personalities.
“We’ve played a few times,” Ostapenko said of the defending champion. “She’s a great player and also a great personality. It’s going to be a tough match. I think we pretty much play the same style of tennis, so I think we’re going to have some big-hitting rallies.”
Ostapenko also appreciates Collins and, as she describes it, her “big personality.”
“She’s the way she is,” Ostapenko said. “She’s not like trying to be someone that people are waiting for. She’s just herself and she’s the real what she is, and I kind of like it.”
