{"id":107516,"date":"2025-08-30T09:29:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-30T09:29:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/107516\/"},"modified":"2025-08-30T09:29:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-30T09:29:07","slug":"jelena-ostapenko-criticized-again-as-former-top-20-player-speaks-up-in-defence-of-taylor-townsend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/107516\/","title":{"rendered":"Jelena Ostapenko criticized again as former top 20 player speaks up in defence of Taylor Townsend"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Taylor Townsend\u2019s meeting at the net with Jelena Ostapenko continues to spark debate across the tennis world, with both fans and players having their say on the situation.<\/p>\n<p>In the second round at Flushing Meadows, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetennisgazette.com\/news\/taylor-fritz-says-if-he-thinks-players-should-apologise-for-net-cords-amid-taylor-townsend-and-jelena-ostapenko-drama\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ostapenko confronted Townsend<\/a> after the match to complain about the American refusing to apologise after she won a point via a net cord. <\/p>\n<p>The former French Open champion later said her opponent had \u2018no class\u2019 and no education; comments which ATP star <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetennisgazette.com\/tag\/ben-shelton\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ben Shelton<\/a> called \u2018shocking\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>WTA number one <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetennisgazette.com\/news\/aryna-sabalenka-has-comment-to-make-about-jelena-ostapenko-after-talking-with-her-following-taylor-townsend-incident\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Aryna Sabalenka weighed in<\/a>, stating that Ostapenko needs to \u2018control her emotions better\u2019, as well as 2003 US Open champion <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetennisgazette.com\/tag\/andy-roddick\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Andy Roddick<\/a>, who said her behaviour \u2018bothered\u2019 him.<\/p>\n<p>Two days after their clash, the Latvian is still receiving criticism for her comments from fellow players, including a former top 20 star who recently gave her thoughts.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" loading=\"lazy\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/GettyImages-2232430337-1024x682.jpg\" alt=\"Jelena Ostapenko and Taylor Townsend argue at the net after their match at the 2025 US Open\" class=\"wp-image-124885\" \/>Photo by Clive Brunskill\/Getty ImagesJelena Ostapenko criticised for her behaviour once again<\/p>\n<p>In an episode of \u2018The Tennis Mini\u2019 on the Australian Open YouTube channel, former Billie Jean King Cup finalist Daria Saville came to the defence of Townsend. <\/p>\n<p>When asked what she thought of the disagreement between the two, Saville responded: \u201cI wasn\u2019t too thrilled.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou probably would not want to do it in the US. I would hope to be smarter than that,\u201d she said of the former French Open champion. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cKnowing Taylor, she is such a sweet girl. I don\u2019t know where Ostapenko was going with it. She did not do herself any favours.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Jelena Ostapenko\u2019s struggles at Grand Slam events this year<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps some of Ostapenko\u2019s frustrations stemmed from her ongoing struggles at Grand Slam events, with her US Open defeat marking another early exit in 2025. <\/p>\n<p>At the Australian Open, she crashed out in the first round after suffering defeat to Belinda Bencic in straight sets.<\/p>\n<p>Grand SlamResultAustralian OpenFirst RoundRoland GarrosThird RoundWimbledonFirst RoundUS OpenSecond RoundJelena Ostapenko\u2019s results in singles at Grand Slams this year<\/p>\n<p>Then, at Roland Garros, Ostapenko made it to round three before falling to former Wimbledon champion <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetennisgazette.com\/tag\/elena-rybakina\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Elena Rybakina<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Her campaign at the All England Club also came to an abrupt end in the opening round when she lost to Britain\u2019s Sonay Kartal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Taylor Townsend\u2019s meeting at the net with Jelena Ostapenko continues to spark debate across the tennis world, with&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":107517,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[49,48,10762,58991,82,23967,2084],"class_list":{"0":"post-107516","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-daria-saville","11":"tag-jelena-ostapenko","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-taylor-townsend","14":"tag-us-open"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107516","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=107516"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107516\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/107517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}