Jelena Ostapenko’s approach to the 2026 tennis season is subtly illuminating. In January, she won a doubles championship in Brisbane. In Doha, she advanced to the semifinals. At the Italian Open, she advanced to the quarterfinals and defeated Zheng Qinwen. She then became a Grand Slam champion for the second time in her career when she and Marcelo Arévalo lifted the Wimbledon mixed doubles trophy in July. It has been a good year by any standard. However, none of it has anything to do with the loudest discussion about Ostapenko in 2026.
One topic has dominated tennis forums and social media threads since the season’s opening game: her body. In some online forums, the question of whether her body has changed since her 2017 French Open days has sparked more debate than her tennis skills.
Ostapenko is currently ranked around 30th in singles and in the top 15 in doubles, competing at an elite level in both disciplines and frequently playing multiple matches per week, so it’s worth taking a moment to consider that.
Some of the discussion may be motivated more by genuine curiosity than by malice. Tennis fans are very aware of the physical aspects of the sport, and players’ bodies do change over the course of a career. Ostapenko, who is five feet ten inches tall, has always played a very physical, ball-striking style that requires a certain level of muscular engagement. To be honest, no one outside of her training team truly knows whether her current physique is the result of deliberate strength-building, natural physical change, or just the rhythm of a hectic work schedule.
The debate hasn’t significantly impacted the court’s decision. Through the 2026 season, she has a 21-15 singles record and has participated in Wimbledon and the French Open. Observers have noted that her movement is essentially unaffected. She still plays the aggressive baseline game that once prompted Steve Tignor to write about her “see ball, hit winner” mentality. Observing her play gives the impression that she is still one of the more captivating and explosive players on the circuit; she can shank a ball off a courtside freezer at Roland Garros and still have the entire crowd rooting for her by the next match.
The Wimbledon mixed doubles championship seems like the right response to the cacophony. A certain level of fitness is necessary to win at the Grand Slam level: quick reflexes, sustained concentration over several rounds, and the capacity to perform well under duress in a hostile draw. In the final, Ostapenko and Arévalo overcame Storm Hunter and Marc Polmans. An athlete in physical decline does not perform that way.
Here, it’s important to recognize a larger trend that female athletes have been navigating for many years. In professional sports, women’s bodies are often scrutinized more than their actual performance. Ostapenko is not the first athlete to go through this, and the fact that weight-related discussions continue despite her competitive performance this season indicates that the criticism is largely unrelated to what is taking place on the court.
Nine years into her professional career, she is 29 years old and has won the French Open, the US Open doubles title, and now the Wimbledon mixed doubles championship. The more intriguing tale—the one that will truly matter ten years from now—is how Ostapenko, at the age of 29, is still competitive at the top level of the sport in two different disciplines. The headline is worth writing.
