Daily Times

PARIS: Jelena Ostapenko suffered her second successive first-round loss at the French Open since winning the 2017 title as she was beaten by former world number one Victoria Azarenka on Tuesday. Considering the calibre of her opponent, a 6-4 7-6(4) loss was not as demoralising as last year’s defeat by Ukraine’s Kateryna Kozlova. But it continued a steep decline for the 21-year-old who also fell in round one at the Australian Open and has managed back-to-back wins just once in 2019. The match statistics made grim reading for Ostapenko with 60 unforced errors to Azarenka’s 19. While the Latvian continues to struggle, Azarenka is heading in the right direction having risen back into the top 50 for the first time since giving birth to son Leo in December 2016.