Jelena Ostapenko won her maiden grand slam at Roland Garros by defeating Simona Halep, however the big question on everyone’s minds, is this a win for the WTA?
No question this win was a huge breakthrough that most people didn’t expect. A fearless young pretender that is Jelena Ostapenko hitting 299 winners over seven matches to take her first major title. A huge day for Latvian sport and a brilliant day for most tennis fans. However will the WTA be happy with this latest victory?, let’s assess the positives and negatives…
Positive – Unpredictability
It’s a win for the WTA in terms of targeting a hardcore tennis audience. Tennis fans love the nature of unpredictability and seeing Ostapenko grow on a week to week basis has been hugely rewarding for most people watching tennis. People love to see the power and a wild game triumph against the defensive and tactically smarter players. For some seeing Kerber’s game was quite boring and many people didn’t see the reward in seeing the German progress with a tactically intelligent game. On the other hand Ostapenko does not provide this, her wacky and wild game is hugely fun for people to watch. The unpredictability of the WTA tour is why people watch it as you do not get this kind of excitement on the ATP tour.
Negative – Promotion
Despite Ostapenko’s win, this result is a nightmare result for WTA’s promotion. Right now with Serena Williams preganant, the WTA needs a consistent player to promote their product on. They had that with Angelique Kerber last season, however the pressure of being world number one has got the best of her. Then you have players like Garbine Muguruza, Elina Svitolina and Simona Halep who provide consistency but do not seem to win these major titles more often. A win for Simona Halep today would have definitely have boosted WTA’s marketing and attracted ‘the regular sports fan’ to watch the WTA. However with Ostapenko you do not get that and will the Latvian be someone who can find consistency and turn into a marketable athlete? I don’t think so and I think today is a bad result for the WTA, who have come under pressure for not having a streaming service.
Reaction:
Here are some fan reaction to the Latvian’s win:
Bad result for the WTA Ostapenko win shows in women tennis there is too much uncertainty. Halep choked as usual. ATP is better 😬😰😨
— OrvilleLloydDouglas🇨🇦🏳️🌈 (@OrvilleLloyd) June 10, 2017
For a 20 year old to win their first title ever on the @WTA & it be @rolandgarros….not bad. #Ostapenko #goodforher
— Michelle Yu (@michelleyutv) June 10, 2017
I'm sorry but having someone like Ostapenko is not a good thing for WTA…. Horrific attitude and bad face for the game
— Eurofan 101 (@serenajameka_) June 8, 2017
Still early on to say that Ostapenko could dominate the WTA tour for the next ten 10 years +
— Emma Simmonds (@Simmo14_) June 10, 2017
It is too early to say whether this is a good or bad result for the WTA, but WTA headquarters will definitely be scratching their heads after this result.
