the pair verbally duelled at the net<\/a>, with the Latvian repeatedly wagging her finger at the American.<\/p>\nTownsend revealed a part of the exchange during her on-court interview, after which she said during her news conference that Ostapenko would have to answer if there were \u201cracial undertones\u201d to the altercation.<\/p>\n
Ostapenko said on Instagram later that her anger stemmed from Townsend\u2019s refusal to apologise after winning a point at a pivotal moment when her ball clipped the net and stayed in play, as she accused the American of being \u201cdisrespectful\u201d.<\/p>\n
Apologising for winning a point with assistance from the net cord is a tradition that most players adhere to, but they are not obliged to do so.<\/p>\n
The Latvian added in another statement that she had never been racist in her life, but Osaka said the words Ostapenko chose during the altercation were in bad taste.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s one of the worst things you can say to a Black tennis player in a majority white sport,\u201d four-time Grand Slam winner Osaka said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know Taylor and I know how hard she\u2019s worked and I know how smart she is, so she\u2019s the furthest thing from uneducated or anything like that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Osaka, born to a Japanese mother and Haitian father, has been an outspoken supporter of the Black Lives Matter movement both in the United States, where she lives, and in Japan. She was a champion advocate for the campaign during her run to the 2020 Flushing Meadows title.<\/p>\n
The 27-year-old had used her platform to highlight racial injustice in the United States to a wider audience by wearing a different face mask \u2013 each bearing the name of an African American who had been killed in recent years \u2013 before each of her seven matches.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019re like genuinely asking me about the history of Ostapenko, I don\u2019t think that\u2019s the craziest thing she\u2019s said. I\u2019m going to be honest,\u201d Osaka continued with a smile.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s ill timing and the worst person you could have ever said it to. And I don\u2019t know if she knows the history of it in America.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know she\u2019s never going to say that ever again in her life. But yeah, it was just terrible. That\u2019s just really bad.\u201d<\/p>\n
American Coco Gauff waded into the debate, saying although Ostapenko should not have said what she said, it was a \u201cheat of the moment\u201d thing.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know what was said after the match,\u201d said Gauff, another vocal advocate for social issues including racial justice.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a heat of the moment thing. Jelena was probably feeling emotions after she lost. I do think that shouldn\u2019t have been said regardless of how you\u2019re feeling \u2026 Knowing Taylor personally, she\u2019s the opposite of that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gauff said that Townsend was one of the nicest people she knew and hoped people would now make an effort to find out more about her.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe this is the first people are hearing who Taylor is, and I don\u2019t want that to be the main focus of who she is because she\u2019s a lot more than that.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s a mother, a great friend, a talented tennis player and a good person. At the end of this tournament I hope people do a deep dive into her and get to know her more than what was said in the previous match.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Naomi Osaka blasts Jelena Ostapenko after her heated exchange with Taylor Townsend at the US Open. Published On…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":105446,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[49,48,44,457,82,593,772,1690],"class_list":{"0":"post-105445","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-sport","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-tennis","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-us-canada"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105445","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105445"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105445\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/105446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}