Gauff-conqueror Ostapenko ‘by no means doubted’ she may win one other Slam

Former French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko stated Sunday she by no means doubted she may win one other main as she reached her first Grand Slam quarter-final since 2018.

The 2017 Roland Garros winner final reached the final eight of a Slam at Wimbledon 4 and a half years in the past and has been clawing her manner again into the elite after dropping outdoors the highest 40 in 2019.

Now she faces present Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina for a spot within the semi-finals after gorgeous seventh seed Coco Gauff 7-5, 6-3 in Melbourne.

Requested by reporters if she had ever thought a second Grand Slam title was past her, the Latvian world quantity 17 stated: “I actually have not actually doubted it.”

She added: “I all the time knew and believed in my recreation. If I play effectively, I can beat virtually anybody.”

Rybakina, of Kazakhstan, blew the ladies’s draw huge open by knocking out world primary Iga Swiatek a couple of minutes earlier.

The 25-year-old Ostapenko was simply 19 when her life was modified by profitable the French Open and she or he stated it took a very long time to regulate after being thrust into the highlight.

“All people anticipated you virtually to win each single match, which is loopy, since you are nonetheless a human and you can’t really feel nice daily,” she stated of the expectation positioned on her younger shoulders.

“I wanted a while to get used to it. After all, quite a lot of consideration from all over the place outdoors the court docket, like picture shoots and all these form of issues.

“You grow to be extra well-liked in your nation. All people is watching you. After all it is nice, however I wanted a while to get used to it.

“I am simply extra hungry now to win one other Grand Slam and simply to play effectively, to be again within the high 10 and simply to play constant.”

Ostapenko will fancy her probabilities if she will be able to get previous Rybakina, with seven of the highest 10 girls’s seeds already culled in a match that has grow to be a massacre for the sport’s star names.

Swiatek’s defeat means the highest two seeds in each the lads’s and girls’s singles are out earlier than the quarter-finals for the primary time at a serious because the Open period started in 1968.

dh/pst