"Your money has to work for you" says Jelena Ostapenko about personal finances
WTA
Jelena Ostapenko has acknowledged that she does not always think about tennis and revealed that she often considers her future finances away from the sport.
Ostapenko has had plenty of on-court success in recent years and the Latvian WTA player lifted her maiden Grand Slam title at the 2017 Roland Garros. In addition, the 25-year-old has won four other WTA Tour titles during her career, and she is currently preparing to play at the 2022 Italian Open later this month.
With such success, Ostapenko has earned as much in her tennis career as some people obtain in a lifetime—just for her Roland Garros triumph, the Latvian player received €2,1 million in prize money.
While some might be content with such an income, Ostapenko said she likes to enjoy the money she earns but is also conscious of planning financially for the future.
"You always have to think about the future – which I don’t like so much, I like to live in the moment, try to enjoy it as much as possible. I hope I’m always going to earn a lot of money, but of course you have to think about how you’re going to do it.”
Aside from her tennis career, Ostapenko partnered with DK One - a Latvian athletics apparel brand located in the 25-year-old's home city of Riga. The sportswear company was founded in 2017 - the same year Ostapenko won her Roland Garros title.
During the offseason in 2021, she worked with the firm and learned that creating apparel was much more difficult than playing professional tennis.
When reflecting on that experience and her financial position, Ostapenko shared that she is always looking to develop on and off the court. She feels a career in investment may have awaited her if she had not broken into professional tennis.
"Your tennis career is not going to be forever. You have to try to earn as much as possible while playing. Of course it’s very important to secure the future. You must invest money somewhere, so it can earn more. Your money has to work for you – just like you work for it."
"I didn’t go to university because I was not sure what I was going to do. One of the things I want to probably study is business management – to know how to deal with all the financial things. Math was always my favorite subject in school. Finance was always something I wanted to learn."
