Jelena Ostapenko slams ‘crazy’ US Open scheduling following Coco Gauff loss

Ewan West 05 Sep 2023 8:19 PM

Jelena Ostapenko on court at the 2023 US Open

Jelena Ostapenko has described the scheduling of her match against Coco Gauff at the 2023 US Open as “a little bit crazy” after exiting the tournament.

The world No 21 expressed her surprise at the match being scheduled first as she had been told the day before by organisers it would be played during the night session.

Ostapenko was destroyed 6-0, 6-2 by world No 6 Gauff in the quarter-finals on Arthur Ashe Stadium in the first match on Tuesday’s singles order of play.

The 26-year-old earned a superb three-set win over defending champion Iga Swiatek in the fourth round in a late-night battle on Sunday.

Speaking following her defeat to 19-year-old American Gauff, Ostapenko admitted she did not feel she was given the best chance to recover from her previous match.

“I didn’t really feel physically very tired, but I felt like I didn’t really recover from that night. Because as I said, I got back to the hotel around, like, 2am and even I tried to go to sleep at 3:00 in the morning, but I had all this adrenaline and it was impossible to fall asleep,” said the Latvian in her press conference.

“Then when you go to sleep at 5:00 or 6:00 in the morning, the whole day where you need a few days just to recover. I think it’s a little bit crazy.

“I mean, if I play a match, like, a late-night session, then I suppose in one day I have to play at least at the same time or later on, because you don’t really have much time to recover.

“Even you have this day in between, but you still need to practice, to do your things, to do the treatment and stuff. So I think it was better for her the schedule, because obviously she played much earlier the day I played night session.”

The 2017 French Open champion also revealed she was not expecting the match to be put so early on the order of play after a conversation with officials.

“The thing was that when I asked the day before, I was pretty sure I’m gonna play at night session, because that’s what they told me. When the schedule came out, I saw I’m playing first match and was, like, wow, that’s a little bit strange scheduling,” explained Ostapenko.

Gauff will play Sorana Cirstea or Karolina Muchova in the last four in New York.