Jelena Ostapenko joins victorious Latvian hockey team in winners circle at Roland Garros

FLASHBACK: Ostapenko is fresh off a semifinal finish at the Internazionali BNL d'Italia.

PARIS—Some slide, some glide, but both Jelena Ostapenko and the Latvian men’s national hockey team had something to celebrate on Tuesday.

Hours before Ostapenko reeled off the final six games of her Roland Garros first round against Tereza Martincova, Latvia scored a stunning upset to win bronze over the United States at the 2023 Men's Ice Hockey World Championships—leading the country to declare a “national holiday.”

“Of course, I'm really proud of the guys,” Ostapenko said after her 6-3, 7-5 victory. “I mean, they're great. I have a lot of friends on the team playing.

“When I was back home, I went for the game against Switzerland. I mean, it was amazing. I'm really happy for them. They are working so hard. They are such nice guys.

“Yeah, our country has to be proud because we're such a small country, but we have such an amazing achievement. They did a great job.”

Ostapenko had plenty of which to be proud herself, marking her eighth appearance on the terre battue with a decisive win over Martincova, who led 5-1 in the second set before the 2017 champion roared back.

“I really was fighting hard,” she said. “I said to myself, ‘I'm not going to give her the set, I will fight until the very last point, and she has to earn it to win it.’

“I really did not want to play the third set, so I tried to do everything possible to win the second set, and I think when it was 5-5, I mentally really—not knew, but I felt that the match will be mine.”

Donning her latest DK ONE collaboration, the No. 17 seed delighted the Court 7 crowd as night fell in Paris, booking a second-round clash with American Peyton Stearns. Though it has been six years since she last hoisted a major trophy, the 25-year-old Ostapenko still has big ambitions, on court and off.

“I always wanted to be different from everyone. Of course, I'm very emotional on court sometimes, and maybe sometimes I don't do the right things, but it's very hard for me because I'm in general an emotional person.

“When I play, of course, also I feel that I can achieve a lot of things, and I'm a perfectionist too, so if something doesn't really go my way, I really get pissed, and this gets into emotions because I really want to make it perfect, but you cannot always make it perfect…probably there are more bad days for athletes because we're tired and jet lag and all the things. The most important is to make a bad day into a good day.

“Also, if I want to do something in future,” she added of her eye-catching designs, “Maybe not just the sports clothes, but some normal clothes, just casual, so maybe it's a good try to prepare for that!”

Can Ostapenko stay in style and skate to a second Roland Garros victory?