PARIS (AP) If Jelena Ostapenko wins the French Open on Saturday, she would accomplish something no tennis player has managed to do since, coincidentally, the day she was born 20 years ago: earn a first tour-level title at a Grand Slam tournament.
The last to do it? Gustavo Kuerten, who won the men’s trophy at Roland Garros on June 8, 1997.
Unseeded, ranked only 47th and never before past the third round at any major tournament, Ostapenko is about as surprising a finalist as there can be on this stage. That’s not to say there haven’t been others, of course, among men and women.