Jelena Ostapenko pulls off amazing comeback to win the French Open

Yesterday was the final of the women's french open where three-seeded Simona Halep faced-off against unseeded Jelena Ostapenko in a battle for their first Grand Slam. This French Open, as well as Ostapenko herself, have already made a lot of history. This was the first women's Grand Slam since the 1979 Australian Open where none of the quarterfinalists had won a major. Ostapenko also made history, becoming the first Latvian to ever reach a semifinal or final in a Grand Slam event.

Ostapenko comes from behind to win the French Open

Jelena Ostapenko went into the tournament as the 47th ranked player in the world and would be facing the 3rd ranked player in the world, Simona Halep. Ostapenko was the fifth unseeded player since the Open Era (1968) to reach the final of the French Open, with all the previous ones having lost. She lost the first set 4-6 and then found herself down 0-3 in the second, with Halep holding three break point to have a chance to take a 0-4 led. Ostapenko then somehow came back to win the second set 6-4. She then found herself down in the third set 1-3, but would come back to win 6-3 and capture her first major.

More history for Ostapenko

With her victory, Jelena Ostapenko became the first Latvian to ever win a Grand Slam. She also became the first woman to win the French Open after losing the opening set since Jennifer Capriati in 2001. She also became only the second woman in the Open Era, joining Martina Navratilova (Wimbledon, 1978), to win her first Grand Slam after being down a set in the final.

At only 20 years and 2 days old, she also became the youngest French Open winner since Iva Majoli in 1997, and the first man or woman to have their first WTA title be a major since Gustavo Kuerten in 1997. She became the first woman to do so since Barbara Jordan won the Australian Open in 1979, along with being the first unseeded woman to win the French Open since the Open Era began.

An unlikely French Open winner

Apart from all the other stats that have been mentioned, there is even more evidence to show that Jelena Ostapenko was an unlikely French Open winner. Prior to this event, she had only played in eight Grand Slams, never having gone past the third round. She also lost in the first round of the French Open last year and in 2015 lost in the first round of qualifying. Clay is not even her preferred surface, as she won the Wimbledon Junior Title back in 2014. With this win, the future certainly looks bright for her.