Jeļena "Aļona" Ostapenko (born 8 June 1997) is a Latvian professional tennis player. She has a career-high singles ranking of world No. 5 in singles by the WTA, achieved in March 2018, and No. 3 in doubles, attained in July 2025. Ostapenko has won nine WTA Tour–level singles titles, including a major at the 2017 French Open, and 13 doubles titles, including two majors at the 2024 US Open in women's doubles with Lyudmyla Kichenok and at the 2026 Wimbledon Championships in mixed doubles with Marcelo Arévalo. She is the current No. 1 player from Latvia.
Ostapenko has also won 15 singles titles and 15 doubles titles on the ITF Women's Circuit, and the junior singles event at the 2014 Wimbledon Championships. She is a member of the Latvia Billie Jean King Cup team.
Personal life Ostapenko was born on 8 June 1997 in Riga, Latvia to former Ukrainian footballer, Jevgēnijs Ostapenko (d. 2020) and Latvian-Russian tennis coach and former player, Jeļena Jakovļeva. Jevgēnijs played professional football for Metalurh Zaporizhzhia in the southeastern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia, where Jeļena's grandmother lives. Elena Ostapenko: Each victory in the tournament gave me confidence , Tennis Portal Ukraine (8 June 2017) Jeļena has one half-brother, Maksim, who lives in the United States.
Ostapenko was introduced to tennis at age five by her mother and idolised Serena Williams while growing up. She also started dancing at that age, going on to compete in the national ballroom dance championships of Latvia. At the age of 12, she chose to focus on tennis, but she credits her good coordination and skilled footwork to the years she danced competitively. Ostapenko speaks Latvian, Russian, and English.
Her legal name is Jeļena, but she is known to her family and friends as Aļona. When she was born, her parents' desired name of Aļona was not on the Latvian name calendar, so she was named Jeļena after her mother. Latvian authorities, however, have claimed that there were no restrictions in place at that time to register any name, and that there had been some misunderstanding. Fans in Latvia and elsewhere had always called her Aļona, but the name was unknown in the West until her win at Roland Garros in 2017. She uses her legal name professionally in order to avoid administrative confusion.
Career 2014: Wimbledon junior champion, WTA Tour debut Ostapenko won the singles event at the junior Wimbledon Championships and was ranked the No. 2 junior tennis player in the world in September 2014. She made her WTA Tour main-draw debut at the Tashkent Open, having been awarded a wildcard and recorded her first win.
2015: Major debut At the Ladies Neva Cup, Ostapenko went through qualifying and won the biggest title thus far. At Wimbledon, Ostapenko defeated the ninth-seeded Carla Suárez Navarro in straight sets (dropping only two games in the match and grabbing her first win over a top-ten player) in the first round, before losing to Kristina Mladenovic.
At the US Open, she lost her second-round match to Sara Errani.
In September, she reached her first WTA Tour final at the Canadian Open, where she lost to Annika Beck.
She ended the season as the world No. 79.
2016: Qatar final, Wimbledon mixed semifinal
She reached the final of the Premier 5 Qatar Ladies Open in Doha, beating world No. 8, Petra Kvitová, on the way. She was beaten by Carla Suárez Navarro in the final, nevertheless she rose to No. 41 in the world rankings.Ranking Watch: Ostapenko New Teen Titan, World Tennis Association, 29 February 2016.
At the French Open, Ostapenko was seeded in the singles at a Grand Slam tournament for the first time in her career, but she dropped her opening match to Naomi Osaka.
At the Birmingham Classic, she beat Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in straight sets in the first round, and two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitová in the second before she was defeated by Madison Keys in the quarterfinals. Ostapenko made the semifinals in mixed doubles at Wimbledon with Oliver Marach, before they fell to the eventual champions, Heather Watson and Henri Kontinen.
Ostapenko made her Olympic debut at the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics but lost to Samantha Stosur in the first round.
She ended the season ranked No. 44 in the world.
2017: French Open champion, top 10 in singles
At the Australian Open, she advanced to the third round of a major tournament for the first time, losing to Karolína Plíšková in three sets despite serving for the match in the third set.
At the Charleston Open, she reached the final losing to fellow 19-year-old Daria Kasatkina.
At the French Open, Ostapenko, then ranked 47th in the world, defeated Louisa Chirico, Monica Puig, Lesia Tsurenko, and Samantha Stosur. She then faced Caroline Wozniacki in the quarterfinals. Ostapenko came from a set down to defeat her, reaching her first Grand Slam semifinal. She was the first Latvian female player to do so and first teenager in a decade to reach the French Open semifinals (the last was Ana Ivanovic in 2007), opposite Timea Bacsinszky on 8 June, the birthday of both players. She beat Bacsinszky in three sets to reach the final, being the first unseeded female player to play in the final of the French Open since Mima Jaušovec in 1983 and the first Latvian player to reach the final of a major. In the final against third-seeded Simona Halep, Ostapenko came back from being down a set and 3–0 to win her first professional title. She became the first Latvian player to win a Grand Slam singles tournament and the first unseeded woman to win the French Open since 1933. Ostapenko also became the first player since Gustavo Kuerten to win his or her first career title at a Grand Slam tournament; coincidentally Kuerten won his first title at the 1997 French Open on the day Ostapenko was born. With the win, she reached a new career-high ranking of world No. 12.
At Wimbledon, Ostapenko beat Aliaksandra Sasnovich, Françoise Abanda, Camila Giorgi, and fourth-seeded Elina Svitolina en-route to her second Grand Slam quarterfinal. She lost to five-time champion Venus Williams.
Then, at the US Open, she reached the third round by defeating Lara Arruabarrena and Sorana Cîrstea, before losing to Daria Kasatkina. Her performance was enough for her to make her top-ten debut in the world rankings, at No. 10.
At the end of September, she won her second career title at the Korea Open in Seoul. In the Wuhan Open, she beat Barbora Strýcová and Monica Puig to reach the quarterfinals, where she scored her first win over a reigning WTA number one, Garbiñe Muguruza, extending her winning streak to eight in a row. She lost to Ashleigh Barty in the semifinal.
In October, she reached the semifinals of the China Open, losing to Simona Halep. At the WTA Finals, she scored a win over Karolína Plíšková but lost to Muguruza and Venus Williams.
She ended the season ranked No. 7 in the world.
2018: World No. 5 in singles, Major semifinal
At Indian Wells, Ostapenko beat Belinda Bencic in the second round before losing to Petra Martić. As a result, she was ranked in the top 5.
Playing at the Miami Open, she defeated ninth-seeded Petra Kvitová in the fourth round and fourth seed Elina Svitolina in the quarterfinals, 7–6, 7–6. In her semifinal match, Ostapenko defeated qualifier Danielle Collins to reach the final, in which she lost to No. 12 seed Sloane Stephens.
Ostapenko entered the French Open as the fifth seed, but failed to defend her title, losing in the first round to Kateryna Kozlova. Following the loss, she left the top ten for the first time since entering. At Wimbledon she beat Katy Dunne, Kirsten Flipkens, Vitalia Diatchenko and Aliaksandra Sasnovich to reach the quarterfinals for a second successive year, then beat Dominika Cibulková to reach her first Wimbledon semifinal, which she lost to eventual winner Angelique Kerber. A left wrist injury caused her to withdraw from the WTA Elite Trophy, and she ended the season ranked No. 22.
2019: Doubles success
Ostapenko's first tournament of the year was the Shenzhen Open where she lost in the first round to Monica Niculescu. She went on to play at the Sydney International, where she lost to Ash Barty in the first round. At the Australian Open, Ostapenko was seeded 22nd and lost to Maria Sakkari, again in the first round. One commentator identified her tendency to hit a relatively high number of double faults, and frequent coaching changes, as contributing to her lack of success in 2019. At the French Open, she lost to Victoria Azarenka in the first round, but reached the quarterfinals of the doubles event with Lyudmyla Kichenok, falling to Elise Mertens and Aryna Sabalenka.
Ostapenko also lost in the first round of the Wimbledon Championships to Hsieh Su-wei. Despite the loss, alongside Robert Lindstedt she reached the first mixed-doubles final of her career, though they lost in straight sets to Latisha Chan and Ivan Dodig. During the tournament Ostapenko twice served a ball on the head of her partner Lindstedt. After Wimbledon, Ostapenko's ranking dropped to as low as No. 83 in the world; this was her lowest ranking since February 2016.
At Jūrmala, Ostapenko was defeated in the first round by Bernarda Pera, but she reached the final of the doubles alongside Galina Voskoboeva; the pair lost to Sharon Fichman and Nina Stojanović. At Toronto, Ostapeonko defeated Caroline Garcia and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova to reach the third round, before losing to qualifier Marie Bouzková; in doubles, she and partner Lyudmyla Kichenok lost in the first round to Julia Görges and Karolína Plíšková. At Cincinnati, she was defeated in the first round of the singles tournament by Yulia Putintseva, and, partnering with Kichenok once again in the doubles, defeated Raquel Atawo and Han Xinyun in the first round, before falling to Lucie Hradecká and Andreja Klepač, the eventual champions. Finally, she had some success at the US Open where she beat Aleksandra Krunić and 2019 Wimbledon quarterfinalist Alison Riske, in straight sets, to reach her first Grand Slam third round of the season where she faced wildcard Kristie Ahn to whom she lost in straight sets. In doubles, she and Kichenok were defeated in the first round by Caroline Dolehide and Vania King.
At Zhengzhou, she defeated You Xiaodi in the first round, before falling to Aryna Sabalenka. At Seoul, she lost to Tímea Babos in the first round, and also lost in the first round of the doubles tournament where, partnering with Kirsten Flipkens, she fell to Hayley Carter and Luisa Stefani. At Tashkent, she retired in the first round against Katarina Zavatska. At Beijing, she upset the second seed Plíšková in the first round, before falling to Kateřina Siniaková in the second. However, she went on to reach the biggest women's doubles final of her career at Beijing, partnering with Dayana Yastremska; they lost to Sofia Kenin and Bethanie Mattek-Sands. At Linz, Ostapenko defeated Tamara Korpatsch, Alizé Cornet, and Elena Rybakina en route to reach her first semifinal appearance since 2018 Wimbledon. In the semifinal, she came from a set and a break deficit to defeat Ekaterina Alexandrova in three tight sets. In her first final since 2018 Miami, Ostapenko faced lucky loser Coco Gauff, losing in three sets. At Linz, Ostapenko announced that she had added fellow Grand Slam champion Marion Bartoli to her coaching team.
At Luxembourg, Ostapenko defeated Caty McNally in the first round, and then defeated top-seeded Elise Mertens in the second round. She then defeated Antonia Lottner and Anna Blinkova to reach the final, where she defeated defending champion Julia Görges in straight sets, to win her first title since Seoul in 2017. By reaching two consecutive finals, Ostapenko managed to raise her ranking to No. 44, ending the year ranked No. 45 in the world.
2020–2021: Eastbourne title, Olympic Games