My hope for Jelena Ostapenko: Can one of tennis' most skilled players give herself more grace?

WATCH: In Stuttgart, Jelena Ostapenko beat 2021 US Open champion in the opening round in a dominant display.

It’s breathtaking to watch Jelena Ostapenko when she’s in control of a tennis match. Point after point flies by when the opponent has little to say, one WTA Tour veteran after another reduced into little more than a bystander in the face of repeated laser-like drives. Ostapenko in charge reminds me of basketball star Steph Curry sinking shots well beyond the 3-point line: It’s not reckless if you own it. As the late Nick Bollettieri once said, “That’s not going for it, baby. Hit the ball the way you’ve been taught to hit it and have practiced a million times. Believe in your shot and let it go.”

Back in 2017, having already been impressed by Ostapenko’s firepower on television, I at last had the chance to see her in person. It happened at the WTA event in Charleston, where Ostapenko reached the finals. Most dazzling was a Friday night quarterfinal win over Caroline Wozniacki. As the speedy Dane tried to run down ball after ball, Ostapenko lit up the court with 40 winners. It was akin to gazing into a crystal ball and gaining a glimpse into the future. Sure enough, two months later, Ostapenko hit the global radar with a captivating run to the title at Roland Garros.

Yet skilled as Ostapenko was over the course of that incredible fortnight in Paris, underneath her prowess lurked the notion that such power-based tennis might not prove sustainable. It reminded me of what Gordon Forbes had written in his book, A Handful of Summers, about Jimmy Connors’ tennis during the 1977 Wimbledon final: “He’s playing too perfectly altogether–like a complicated machine that has been programmed to hit hundreds of risky winners, and then been overwound. Watching him, one senses overkill. ‘He can’t keep doing that,’ one mutters. And, of course, he can’t.” Connors ended up losing that match to Bjorn Borg, 6-4 in the fifth set. True as Forbes’ comment barely was that day, Connors’ genius was his ability to harness high-octane ball-striking with business-like focus.

More relevantly for Ostapenko, Connors’ intensity rarely got the best of him.

An Ostapenko match is often a rollercoaster. Consider several of her recent scores. In Stuttgart, she lost to Ons Jabeur, 1-6, 7-5, 6-3. A month earlier, at Indian Wells, Petra Kvitova defeated her, 0-6, 6-0, 6-4. Prior to that, in Dubai, Aryna Sabalenka beat Ostapenko, 2-6, 6-1, 6-1. A week earlier, in Doha, Ostapenko led Jessica Pegula 5-2 in the third and held two match points, only to drop the next five games. And just one week previously, in Abu Dhabi versus Danielle Collins, Ostapenko emerged the victor, 7-5, 1-6, 7-5.

One school of thought believes Ostapenko should learn the art of temperance, that a sound way for her to navigate would be to dial back the pace and find more ways to keep the ball in play. Perhaps.

My belief is different. Does Ostapenko need an alternative set of strategies and tactics? Sure, what’s wrong with an occasional high ball? And when not on the run, why not go crosscourt a little bit more and keep the rally alive rather than rip it down-the-line and attempt a winner? Those, though, are mere shot selection wrinkles.

The way I see it, Ostapenko is undermined less by what she chooses to do with the ball and more by her mercurial attitude towards the process of competition. Ostapenko’s emotional displays create a persistently spiking energy pattern that derails her from maintaining a rational and tranquil attitude from one point to another. This is what I believe accounts for the up-and-down quality of so many Ostapenko matches.

Too often, Ostapenko lets negativity intrude and derail. Begin with the way she questions electronic line calls. While the entire sport is on-board with this approach to officiating, Ostapenko sees it differently. What is that but a distraction from getting on with the match and to some degree a form of stalling and gamesmanship? Does she really think an electronic call will be overruled? Then there are those moments when Ostapenko squeaks her shoes as she’s gearing up to return serve. Hindrance? Leave it to each server to judge, but let’s just the say the rules are being pushed–and the attendant controversy is yet another counterproductive diversion from the business task.

Worst of all is to watch Ostapenko handle defeat. Revealing examples have come the last two years at Wimbledon. In 2022, after seeing two match points vanish before losing to Tatjana Maria, Ostapenko threw her water bottle at the chair and subsequently said Maria was “lucky” to win. Twelve months earlier, following a defeat to Ajla Tomljanovic that was marred by Ostapenko’s late match request for a trainer visit, Ostapenko said, “if I played at least 50 percent, I would have beaten her.”

Once upon a time there was a promising young player who instantly impressed his peers as a feisty, gritty competitor. But he also was known as a sore loser. Like Ostapenko, at the end of a defeat, this young man had many moments when he wouldn’t look the winner in the eye or shake hands in a proper, sincere manner. One day he lost to the great Australian, Roy Emerson. As the two met at the net, the loser sought to make his typical quick getaway. But Emerson wouldn’t have it. Instead, he grabbed the young man by the forearm, held his hand in a firm handshake, lifted him off the ground and walked the two of them to the umpire’s chair–at which point the two thanked the umpire. Hence chastened, the young man years later admitted he’d become that much wiser about sportsmanship.

Drawing from this example, Ostapenko needs what her fellow 2017 Roland Garros champion, Rafael Nadal, has had since childhood: a thorough respect for every opponent, the officials, and, most of all, the entire game. Is there really a need to feel victimized by accepted electronics or be rude to the victor? As champions like Emerson and Nadal have demonstrated, sportsmanship makes it easier to compete. “How great we have the chance to go out there, exercise, and compete,” said Emerson. “Let’s enjoy the battle.”

My hope is that a player as skilled as Ostapenko can find such grace inside her own heart and mind.