Jelena Ostapenko sweeps aside Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova to reach Upper Austria Ladies Linz Final, potential second title of 2024 incoming

Jelena Ostapenko has swept aside Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-2, 6-3 and will play in the final of Upper Austria Ladies Linz on Sunday after not dropping serve during her semi-final win over the Russian ace.

Ostapenko is into her second final of the year to continue her terrific start to the season and her power-heavy game was on full show as she overwhelmed Pavlyuchenkova who was unable to break despite having seven chances to do so. The true mark of the brilliance of the Latvian.

She broke twice in the first set and once in the second without reply and has reached her 16th WTA Final. It will be the two top seeds who face off in the final so it has somewhat gone to type as Ostapenko will face Ekaterina Alexandrova in the showpiece match after the Russian saw off Donna Vekic in a three set thriller earlier on Saturday.

En route to the final, Ostapenko saw off Clara Tauson in three sets 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 before defeating qualifier Jodie Burrage with ease 6-1, 6-2 who has since had to pull out of next week's Transylvania Open due to injury. While Pavlyuchenkova had it a lot tougher in seeing off Martina Trevisan, Katie Boutler and Elise Mertens to reach this stage and it is further progress on the route back for the Russian who sits nestled just inside the World's top 40. But for Ostapenko, it is a chance of a second title of the year after winning in Adelaide.

It was also a match that saw some lights out tennis featuring ten aces over just 9 service games. It could yet be the first time that Ostapenko has won multiple titles in a year since 2017, the year she won Roland Garros. The scary part is the year has only just begun.