Jelena Ostapenko is to return to the Top 10 on the WTA Tour, nearly six years after she left the elite company.
The Latvian is actually called Alona by her friends and family, but regardless of what you call her, she's a really good tennis player. It wasn't always that way because she's had a tremendous rollercoaster ride so far, but as of recent times, she's back to her best.
In the first six months of 2017, Ostapenko wasn't even 20 years old, but she made a surprise run at the French Open, ending up with the trophy. That was the start of her major rise as she jumped to number 12 on the rankings after that event, and it went only up from there.
By the end of the year, Ostapenko would end up in the Top 10 and finish the year as the 7th best-ranked player in the world. The next year didn't bring more success as she started to drop down, leaving the Top 10 on June 10th, 2018, almost six years ago.
Fast forward to now, Ostapenko is set to return to the Top 10 after some really solid performances in recent months. She was the one who bested Iga Swiatek at the 2023 US Open, causing her to lose the number one rank to Aryna Sabalenka.
She also recently showed how she cares about her matches due to her exuberant personality, making the tennis part largely go unnoticed. Besides her singles success, she's also a really good doubles player and plays it regularly, winning a couple of trophies there as well.
Most importantly, though, she's a fairly consistent player marred by inconsistencies. She often manages to win matches every week but rarely puts together five or six good matches in a row.
Even so, winning regularly like that is good enough for the Top 10, as her 4-1 start so far in 2024 will see her jump over Barbora Krejcikova and Beatriz Haddad Maia on next week's rankings.
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