But Jelena Ostapenko, a trained ballroom dancer, continued to defy norms.
The statistics from her victory over Halep suitably showcase this point, Ostapenko hitting 54 winners and making 54 unforced errors to her opponent's tallies of eight and 10, respectively. "At some point I was like a spectator on court", she said.
In baking sunshine Ostapenko began the match by breaking Halep's serve with three clean winners and ended it, two hours later with two scintillating backhands.
"We need personalities, and she's a personality", seven-time French Open victor Chris Evert told Eurosport.
"All the credit for what you've done". Because of all the wonderful things she acheived in the span of one tournament, there's no reason to think she can't make a deep run, and possibly get another win, at the All England Club when Wimbeldon commences in less than a month. Keep it going because you are only a kid.
Ostapenko also became the first Latvian player to win a Grand Slam in the single competition. She had previously won her quarter-final after trailing Elina Svitolina 3-6 1-5 and Halep was the latest victim of her determination.
Ostapenko, a former Wimbledon girls' champion, was yet to win a WTA tour title.
"As I said, she deserved to win".
Women's tennis has been crying out for a young player to not just make a breakthrough but build on it and become a great champion.
The Spaniard has won $14.4m from his French Open career - representing just under 20 per cent of his entire career earnings of $17.2m.
In six rounds, she has executed 245 clean winners - 26 per cent of all the points she has played. But Halep is mainly a defensive player, and does a great job of it, but she didn't quite have the luxury of being unscarred by failure.
May starts DUP talks in bid to keep power
Party leader Arlene Foster seemed buoyant as she arrived at May's Downing Street office - and her good mood just kept on going. Irish nationalist party Sinn Fein said the prospect of a British agreement with the DUP was causing anxiety and fear.
Sharapova (if she gets through qualifying), Azarenka and Petra Kvitova will be at Wimbledon, while others will rebound from poor showings in Paris. This is only the eighth major of her career.
The key game of the set came on the Halep serve at 4-4. In the run-up to Paris, she had won the title in Madrid, made the finals in Rome and the semi-finals in Stuttgart.
"Of course, now I probably will have more pressure but I'm going to try to deal with that".
- She guided a handsome forehand down to line to draw level with her 36th victor of the match. So what if Ostapenko wound up dropping that set, then facing big deficits in the second and third?
She burst onto the scene over these two weeks with a brash brand of tennis.
'She has a lot of advantage because she knows most of the match depends on her side.
Ostapenko's fortnight in the city of lights is, thus, also the tale of grit and fearlessness overcoming experience - and favouritism - to give a fitting end to the tournament by producing one last upset to lift the Coupe Suzanne Lenglen.
Latvia's Jelena Ostapenko kisses the cup after defeating Romania's Simona Halep in their final match of the French Open tennis tournament at the Roland Garros stadium, Saturday, June 10, 2017 in Paris.
"If I am having a really good day and I'm hitting really well, I think anything is possible", she said. "Not before that. I was just taking it step by step". I'm just so happy.
Things went her way to the tune of 54 winners, a remarkably high total that was 46 more than the defensive-minded Halep. "I have no words".
Comments