Azarenka prevails over Ostapenko in wild French Open blockbuster

The only thing predictable about Tuesday’s opening-round blockbuster at Roland Garros between Victoria Azarenka and Jelena Ostapenko was the unpredictability of the Latvian's presence on court.

Azarenka survived 6-4, 7-6 (4) over the 2017 Roland Garros champion in a match that featured 13 breaks of serve—including eight in a row to start the contest.

"She's one of the players that you never know what's coming and she doesn't really give a lot of rhythm," said Azarenka. "So for the first round, that was for me very dangerous because it's important to get into a rhythm, into the tournament. And with a player like that, you need to find a way to win, and I felt that today that's what it was."

The conditions on Court Simonne Mathieu were challenging in every direction: swirling wind and scatterings of showers, coupled with Ostapenko’s hot and cold stretches, presented Azarenka a worthy test, and an area to address before her next match.

Though Ostapenko was done in by her own serving woes, donating 17 double faults in defeat, she was relentless against Azarenka’s second serve. The 21-year-old exposed Azarenka’s short box placements to drill winner after winner from both wings. Azarenka was successful just once on 13 second serves in the opening set and was fortunate to get through in two.

Down 4-5 in the second set, Ostapenko erased two match points, poignantly making two first serves to help her cause. She then pestered Azarenka in a 12-minute game, hitting all corners of the court to break for 6-5 and a shot to extend the match. A breeze kicked up and despite winning the first two points, Ostapenko tightened again. Four mistakes–a wild forehand, botched backhand volley, double fault and netted backhand—gave Azarenka a second chance to reach the finish line.

This time, she crossed it, never trailing in the tiebreaker to win the pair’s first meeting in one hour and 45 minutes. The two-time Australian Open champion will face world No. 1 Naomi Osaka in the second round. Osaka was two points from bowing out, until digging in to win 0-6, 7-6 (4), 6-1 over Anna Karolina Schmiedlova.

"I love to challenge myself against the best players," Azarenka said. "I don't think about it. Again, it's a second round. I don't really look at it that way... I had some good wins in the last couple weeks against top 10 players, so I feel that I'm ready to play against top players."