Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to the Sitdown. I'm viv Christine, Managing
Speaker 1: editor of Austraian Tennis magazine.
Speaker 2: And I'm Metrolope Arata, an editor for ozopen dot com
Speaker 2: and Viv. Why are we sitting down this week with
Speaker 2: Elena Ostapenko.
Speaker 1: Well, Matt, we had been wanting to interview Yolena for
Speaker 1: quite some time, so when the opportunity came up at
Speaker 1: the Australian Open, we of course jumped at it. You know,
Speaker 1: she's a bit of a phenomen She won the Roland
Speaker 1: Garrels title in twenty seventeen and went on to bring
Speaker 1: so much popularity and personality to the sport.
Speaker 2: Yeah, she definitely did, and that French Open win in
Speaker 2: twenty seventeen, you reference five was not only a massive
Speaker 2: career breakthrough for her personally, but it actually kind of
Speaker 2: shifted the landscape of women's tennis if you remember back then.
Speaker 2: A couple of months earlier, Serena Williams had won the
Speaker 2: Australian Open and was kind of the dominant player in
Speaker 2: the game, but then announced her pregnancy and stepped away
Speaker 2: from the sport. And Ostapenko was the first major champion
Speaker 2: in that kind of post Serena era, and it was
Speaker 2: kind of an increased completely. It was such an open period.
Speaker 2: After that, her win as an unseeded player inspired the
Speaker 2: rest of the tour to show that they could win
Speaker 2: as well. Naomi Osaka has talked about that being inspiring
Speaker 2: for her, and a year later she won the US Open.
Speaker 2: So it really just showed that anybody could win and
Speaker 2: just gave the entire feel so much confidence.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I guess one of the interesting things that
Speaker 1: Elena revealed in our interview is that that success may
Speaker 1: have come a little bit too early for her. Jolena Ostapenko,
Speaker 1: thank you for joining us on the sit down here
Speaker 1: at this Stowe Open. How does it feel to kick
Speaker 1: off your twenty twenty six campaign with a win?
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's great for us round so they're always stuff.
Speaker 3: It's not it's easy and I'm really happy. Was the
Speaker 3: way managing the match today, And yeah, in general, I
Speaker 3: think I was playing world today.
Speaker 2: We don't mean to bring up an unfortunate stat, but
Speaker 2: it was. You were on a six match losing streak
Speaker 2: and you broke it today. So does it feel good
Speaker 2: to get back on track and kind of get back
Speaker 2: towards the level you know you can reach.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, of course, and I've been like I
Speaker 3: did really good pre season and I felt like some
Speaker 3: matches were like really close matches, so and today was
Speaker 3: important just to like, even you're not playing your best
Speaker 3: sometimes just to manage it and get through the first
Speaker 3: round and just in general get through the match.
Speaker 2: Tell us about your pre season if it was a
Speaker 2: good one, did you do anything different or kind of
Speaker 2: what did you focus on.
Speaker 3: I just did a lot of fitness, So I was like,
Speaker 3: first few weeks I was doing in Riga, and then
Speaker 3: the other two weeks I was doing in Dubai, so
Speaker 3: like on a halfway to Australia, almost halfway, not halfway.
Speaker 3: So yeah, I was doing like pretty much everything more
Speaker 3: focused in Riga was for my fitness stuff and in
Speaker 3: Dubai more like tennis stuff.
Speaker 1: That it kind of shows just the traveling life of
Speaker 1: a tennis player really, So you know you're home in Latvia,
Speaker 1: then you have to go to a warmer climate to
Speaker 1: to get ready for the Australina Open. Is that like
Speaker 1: is that a fun experience.
Speaker 2: To travel to and acclimatize. I guess because winters summer
Speaker 2: is moving around all that house I.
Speaker 4: Like when it's summer.
Speaker 3: Of course, not as hot as it's going to be
Speaker 3: in a couple of days, like forty degrees it's a
Speaker 3: little bit too much. But this weather is perfect like
Speaker 3: here and also Dubai. Yeah, I really like warm weather
Speaker 3: because especially in like November, December and Latvia, everything is
Speaker 3: like very dark.
Speaker 4: It gets dark really quick.
Speaker 3: And so and everyone is like sick, so have a cold,
Speaker 3: Yeah they have cold.
Speaker 4: So yeah.
Speaker 3: I think it was a great change to go to
Speaker 3: Dubai because I could practice obviously outdoors and yeah, and
Speaker 3: then a straight flight to Australia.
Speaker 1: What do you love about Melbourne?
Speaker 4: I just like Australia lot.
Speaker 3: It's like really nice and the people are so friendly,
Speaker 3: and I think Melbourne is really nice city. You kind
Speaker 3: of have everything you need. You have nice restaurants, you
Speaker 3: have nice shops, you have good food, you have all
Speaker 3: the facilities you need. Like every year is improving. The
Speaker 3: site here is like improving every year, and it's I mean,
Speaker 3: there is everything that we need to feel good.
Speaker 2: It's been a great tournament for you, my quarterfinals here
Speaker 2: and had You've been coming here for a long time
Speaker 2: as well and had big wins over the years. When
Speaker 2: you think back to all of your Australian Opens, what
Speaker 2: are some of your best memories or best matches or
Speaker 2: best level What do you remember most positively?
Speaker 3: I remember the year when I made quarterfinals. I think
Speaker 3: I played some really great matches beating Coco Golf, and.
Speaker 4: Also probably last year playing the final.
Speaker 3: Also, so two years in a role playing final in doubles,
Speaker 3: it was also great experience. But of course my focus
Speaker 3: is singles. But yeah, in doubles, I have no pressure,
Speaker 3: so I play really like in a good way, relaxed.
Speaker 3: So yeah, so I wish I can bring this mentality
Speaker 3: to my singles.
Speaker 1: Just on that, I'm sort of intrigued by doubles and
Speaker 1: how it contributes to your single success. Do you feel
Speaker 1: that it helps you?
Speaker 3: I think most of the time yes, because it's still
Speaker 3: a match. You can practice like so much, but then
Speaker 3: you go to the match and you play much worse,
Speaker 3: probably for example because doubles. Of course for me it's
Speaker 3: less nerves than in singles, but it's still a match
Speaker 3: and you still have some match elements to work on.
Speaker 3: So I think you can take it as good practice
Speaker 3: stuff for singles.
Speaker 1: And is it fun being out on a quote? With
Speaker 1: another person. Does that change kind of the vibe of
Speaker 1: the match as well.
Speaker 3: Yeah, when you have a good wife with a person
Speaker 3: and good connection, I think it's great. I mean with
Speaker 3: the way I'm having a lot of fun on the court,
Speaker 3: because yeah, she's a great personality, and also like I
Speaker 3: feel like the more we play, the better we feel
Speaker 3: as a player each other.
Speaker 4: So we kind of match well.
Speaker 2: We your combination is amazing. You have so many fans
Speaker 2: because you are so opposite, certainly the way you play tennis.
Speaker 2: What is it like combining with a partner who plays
Speaker 2: tennis so different to you.
Speaker 3: I think she has great hands and just I think
Speaker 3: for her is like also great to play with me
Speaker 3: because from my shots, for her it's it's like my
Speaker 3: cheeser to probably play the net. But I mean in general,
Speaker 3: also like she's she has like some great rallies on
Speaker 3: the baseline and she's like for me like some shots
Speaker 3: it's like wow, amazing guy, sometimes like well how did
Speaker 3: you do that?
Speaker 4: So I think, yeah, our like styles match very well.
Speaker 2: You're obviously extremely famous. So when you broke through at
Speaker 2: the French Open, I remember that actually I was at
Speaker 2: that tournament, and the way you kind of played, you
Speaker 2: just excited everybody and developed fans, and you kind of
Speaker 2: a little bit kind from Norway, even though you'd been
Speaker 2: a junior champion. And that's almost ten years ago now,
Speaker 2: So how kind of how do you feel you are
Speaker 2: as a tennis player these days? And how does that
Speaker 2: feel recent to you? What does that feel like that's
Speaker 2: another lifetime ago? Like how much do you cast your
Speaker 2: mind back to that career highlight?
Speaker 3: I think it was a long time ago, and I
Speaker 3: kind of, of course, it's a great achievement, but I
Speaker 3: kind of want to live in a present and try
Speaker 3: to achieve that again.
Speaker 4: And that's what I'm working for, of course.
Speaker 3: And I think, honestly, maybe as a person, if I
Speaker 3: want a Grand Slam a little bit when I was
Speaker 3: a bit older, I think I would have handled it
Speaker 3: a bit better because it took me a few years
Speaker 3: just to get used to what happened. Because I'm coming
Speaker 3: from a really small country and to show everyone that
Speaker 3: from a small country can win a Grand Slam and
Speaker 3: be top five player.
Speaker 4: I mean, it's amazing achievement for such a country as
Speaker 4: lat Yeah.
Speaker 3: So yeah, all the attention, especially you feel that when
Speaker 3: you're from a small country, like when you come home,
Speaker 3: you have like attention from everywhere, and yeah, I mean
Speaker 3: it's really nice, but at the like, on the other side,
Speaker 3: it's a little bit difficult because you kind of lose
Speaker 3: your focus on practices and all that stuff. And yeah,
Speaker 3: I really needed some long time to get used to it.
Speaker 3: So probably if I was older when I want a
Speaker 3: Grand Slam, it would be a bit easier to deal
Speaker 3: with all that stuff.
Speaker 2: It looked like you dealt with it very well though,
Speaker 2: because after French you made Wimbledon quarters and then you
Speaker 2: went into the Semis. You've been top five, You've won thousands,
Speaker 2: Like you might not have won another Grand Slam, but
Speaker 2: your career has been very consistently good at the biggest tournaments.
Speaker 2: Do you think that you have Did you adapt better
Speaker 2: than maybe you think you did.
Speaker 3: I think I was some tournaments consistent, some tournaments not
Speaker 3: really consistent. For me, what is important is try to
Speaker 3: be more consistent, at least on the big tournaments. And
Speaker 3: that's what I'm trying like working on of course, because
Speaker 3: I think tennis is like seventy seventy five percent mental game.
Speaker 3: It's like everything in the head because you can play
Speaker 3: amazing on a practice you can win all the practice sets,
Speaker 3: and then you go out on the court and you
Speaker 3: cannot win a match. So it's all like mental things.
Speaker 3: So yeah, I'm trying to work more on that and
Speaker 3: just to be like more consistent because obviously I'm more
Speaker 3: mature now like I got older, and yeah, I think
Speaker 3: it's better now than never.
Speaker 1: You are really loved by a diverse fan base really
Speaker 1: just because you're so expressive and you have it seems
Speaker 1: like you have a lot of fun and you're not
Speaker 1: afraid to express your emotions on court.
Speaker 4: Is that something?
Speaker 1: Does it come naturally or yeah?
Speaker 3: I think it comes naturally, and I've been working on
Speaker 3: that as well. Like, of course sometimes it can get
Speaker 3: too much, but I also feel like if I keep
Speaker 3: all that inside, I'm gonna like explode at a moment,
Speaker 3: which is also not helpful and not good for me
Speaker 3: as it's player, because of course I'm more emotional than
Speaker 3: most of the players. But I think the people who
Speaker 3: understand me, they love it and they like to see
Speaker 3: that because I'm the way I am. I'm not trying to,
Speaker 3: you know, be someone who people want me to be.
Speaker 3: I'm myself. Yes, I kind of also like Arena Sablenka sometimes,
Speaker 3: like I know that she was saying in the interviews
Speaker 3: that she doesn't like to look at herself on the court,
Speaker 3: but I think that what makes her very like special
Speaker 3: and makes her a big personality and also like it
Speaker 3: helps to achieve more.
Speaker 1: And very authentic as well, So that must feel good.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, also, I honestly love big personalities. Also,
Speaker 3: Serena was like a big personality and you know, yeah,
Speaker 3: I mean it doesn't there has to be a balance,
Speaker 3: of course, but as long as it's like in the balance,
Speaker 3: why not to show your emotions.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you've said you've had the great process and you're
Speaker 2: working very hard, you know, off the court, on your tennis,
Speaker 2: on your mentality. So what do you hope for in
Speaker 2: twenty twenty.
Speaker 3: Six Try to get back to top ten and try
Speaker 3: to play more consistent.
Speaker 4: Just yeah on the big tournaments.
Speaker 1: Well, good luck with that, and thank you for joining
Speaker 1: us again on the sit down.
Speaker 4: Thank you, thanks so much, well, Matt.
Speaker 1: That didn't disappoint. It was a lot of fun to
Speaker 1: interview Yolena.
Speaker 2: Oh, it sures and it was really interesting now that
Speaker 2: I guess we talked about that. Roland Garros win when
Speaker 2: she was twenty Well, she's now twenty eight and in
Speaker 2: a different stage of her career and talked about her
Speaker 2: focus has shifted to trying to be more consistent, working
Speaker 2: on the mental side of the game, which she said
Speaker 2: was seventy five percent of tennis. That she's targeting a
Speaker 2: return to the top ten, so it'll be fascinating to
Speaker 2: see what she can do in twenty twenty six.
Speaker 4: We'll be back.
Speaker 1: Next week with another episode of the sit Down. Please
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Speaker 1: n VIV then then.
Speaker 3: Then then the