The last player, male or female, to win their first career title at a major was Gustavo Kuerten in 1997 - incredibly on the Ostapenko was born, so perhaps it was just fate.
Her stunning run in Paris - capped by a riveting 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 comeback win over No. 3 seed Simona Halep in the final - made her the first Latvian to win a Grand Slam singles title.
Ostapenko was precise: she hit 54 winners that struck the lines and the corners both when it counted and with wheezing speed.
And there is no second guessing, even though Ostapenko was clad in disbelief.
"I can't believe I am the French Open champion at just 20". It was always my dream, when I was a child I was watching players here. "Now I really like it".
"Congrats to Simona you had a great week and it was really tough for me", Ostapenko told the crowd and Halep after the final. "I'm glad it finished my way".
Third seed Halep stormed into the quarter-finals without dropping a set, but she faced match point against Elina Svitolina before pulling off a miraculous recovery from 3-6, 1-5 down to reach the last four.
Since then she has won 20 matches and lost only three, and Cahill has no doubt she will have more chances to win slams. But the Romanian, who had never faced Ostapenko before, bristled at the suggestion.
The stocky baseliner is the first unseeded champion in the professional era.
Ostapenko certainly was not planning to go all the way, either.
US Responds to Russian Warning in Syria
The hotline connects USA military officers at an operations center in Qatar and their Russian counterparts operating in Syria. The actions of the US Air Force are in fact " military aggression " against Syria, the statement adds.
Virtually unknown outside tennis circles, the 2014 junior Wimbledon victor will move from No.47 to No.12 in the rankings on Monday.
Her father Evgenijs is a former professional footballer.
With the rankings cut-off several weeks ago, Ostapenko is now still one out, although a wild card will surely be made available for her if she wants it.
Ostapenko prefers to be called Alona.
Ranked No 47 pre-tournament, Ostapenko will climb now to No 12.
Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia returns the ball to Simona Halep of Romania during the women's singles final at the French Open Tennis Tournament 2017 in Paris, France, on June 10, 2017. She may struggle to regain her form in the short grass-court season, and we have seen many a player suffer a dip after getting so close to the ultimate prize.
After rallying from an 0-3 deficit in the second set and a 1-3 deficit in the third, she finished in style: nervelessly nailing a backhand return victor down the line, to complete one of the most surprising runs in tennis' long history.
- Halep broke unseeded Ostapenko's serve in the second game and consolidated with a hold in the third to take a 3-0 second-set lead.
The ball was tracking wide but clattered into the net, ballooned high into the air and landed in for an improbable victor - and break of service.
Those numbers are counter-balanced by her unforced errors - 54 on Saturday and 271 in total - but they were not enough to stop the energy-charged Ostapenko from bulldozing her way to the title, firing faster forehands on average than men's world number one Andy Murray.
Comments