Sloane Stephens and Jelena Ostapenko will meet for the first time in their careers in today’s final of the Miami Open. I twill be the second consecutive Premier Mandatory final, in which two players have clashed for the first time after Naomi Osaka’s win over Daria Kasatkina in Indian Wells earlier this month.
Ostapenko is the third player from the golden generation of players born in 1997 after Indian Wells finalsts Osaka and Kasatkina to reach a Premier Mandatory final this month.
Stephens is looking to continue her perfect record in finals after winning each of her previous five match titles, including four in straight sets. Ostapenko lost her first three finals in Quebec City 2015, Doha 2016 and Charleston 2017 before winning her first tow titles at Roland Garros and Seoul in three sets in 2017.
It will be the second match between two reigning Grand Slam champions in this tournament after Stephens’ win over Garbine Muguruza in the fourth round.
With her final in Miami Stephens has reached a career-high of world number 9 five years after coming one match away from taking the world number 9 in 2013, the year in which she qualified for the semifinal at the Australian Open. Before her run to the final in Miami the US player had won just three of her past 13 matches following her triumph at Flushing Meadows with just one win over a world number 100 player Pauline Parmentier in the first round at Acapulco. Stephens is bidding to become the fifth US player to win at Crandon Park after Martina Navratilova, Chris Evert, Venus Williams and Serena Williams.
“No switch clicked. I just needed some time to get myself together and get myself in a good place and make sure that I was ready to play. Going into the season I knew I didn’t have the greatest off-season, so for me, the two matches that I lost in the first part of the year in Australia were not a big deal. If you are not 100 %, you cannot expect much”, said Stephens.
Ostapenko would move up to a career high of world number 4 after reaching her sixth career final and her first in 2018. The Latvian player would become the first player from her country to win a Premier Mandatory title. She had never won a match in Miami before this year’s edition. In her previous two appearances at Key Biscayne the 20-year-old player lost in the first round to qualifier Sachia Vickery in 2016 and to Madison Brengle in the opening match last year. She came to Miami with a win-loss record of 4-7 but she showed greta form this week beating Petra Kvitova, Elina Svitolina and US rising star Danielle Collins without dropping a set.
Ostapenko has become the youngest player to reach the Miami final since 2009, when then 19-year old Victoria Azarenka clinched the first of her three titles in Crandon Park.
“I think now I am playing more consistent and I am just really happy to be here. I am calmer and mentally I am stronger now. I am just going for shots and I am not afraid to miss it”, said Ostapenko.
