Ostapenko, weight problems: Incredible images from her last match VIDEO

In performance sports, the problem of extra pounds is ridiculous, non-existent. That’s if we’re talking about high-level, elite athletes like Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi or Kylian Mbappe, obsessed with perfection. However, there are also athletes who obviously neglect their physical form, although this is a primary condition for achieving results.

And in the women’s tennis circuit, there are periodically players who shock because of the extra kilos. Even the legendary Serena Williams (41 years old) played, in the last years of her career, having an obvious surplus of weight, failing to reach the optimal shape after the birth of her child. If Serena at least had the excuse of giving birth and, in addition, she was at the end of her career, on the other hand, Jelena Ostapenko (Latvia, 25 years old, 18 WTA) is not in any of these situations!

It needs to be clarified right from the start: Ostapenko, even when she poked her head into the good world of tennis and beat Halep in the final of the French Open 2017, was no weakling. On the contrary! Even then, he had some extra pounds. But now, Jelena seems to have got the situation out of control, at the beginning of 2023!

Worse, this problem of Ostapenko also hangs heavily on her results on the circuit. In the new season, in three singles matches, she won only one. The victory was achieved at the very beginning of the season, against another player suffering after several injuries: Karolina Pliskova (Czech Republic, 30 years old, 31 WTA).

After this success with Pliskova, in minimum sets, Ostapenko was defeated by both Begu (28 WTA) and Kalinskaya (64 WTA). In both games, Jelena was effectively shattered: she won only three games with Irina and seven with the Russian Anna Kalinskaya. After this second match, harsh comments from fans appeared online about Ostapenko’s extra pounds. And the images from that game are eloquent, in this sense.