French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko survived a second-set scare from corset-wearing Italian veteran Francesca Schiavone to get her Australian Open campaign off to winning start on Monday
Jelena Ostapenko
French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko survived a second-set scare from corset-wearing Italian veteran Francesca Schiavone to get her Australian Open campaign off to winning start on Monday. World number seven Ostapenko raced through the first set on Rod Laver Arena against the 2010 Roland Garros winner 6-1.
But she found herself 4-1 down in the second to the world number 93 who was bizarrely wearing a weightlifter-style back brace over her tennis top. The big-hitting Latvian soon found her range again and hit back with two breaks of the Schiavone serve, the second achieved with a trademark forehand winner.
Ostapenko then served out with no further alarms to take the match 6-1, 6-4 in one hour and 14 minutes. "Second set I was missing a little bit but I managed to get through," said Ostapenko, who was recording her maiden match victory of 2018 having lost in the first rounds at both the Shenzhen and Sydney warm-up events.
She will next meet China's Duan Yingying who overcame Colombia's Mariana Duque -Marino in straight sets.
Catch up on all the latest sports news and updates here
Download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get updates on all the latest and trending stories on the go
Subscribe today by clicking the link and stay updated with the latest news!" Click here!
