{"id":109018,"date":"2025-08-31T03:12:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-31T03:12:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/109018\/"},"modified":"2025-08-31T03:12:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-31T03:12:07","slug":"some-us-open-tennis-players-upset-over-a-loss-cant-shake-it-off","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/109018\/","title":{"rendered":"Some US Open tennis players upset over a loss can’t shake it off"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 There\u2019s been a lot of talk about the unwritten rules of tennis during Week 1 of this U.S. Open<\/a>, whether it\u2019s the necessity of a \u201c sorry, not sorry<\/a> \u201d raised hand after a let cord or the proper way to warm up<\/a> with an opponent or the legitimacy of an underarm serve<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Another part of the game drawing attention \u2014 thanks to players\u2019 complaints about each of the above \u2014 is the postmatch greeting at the net, which usually involves shaking hands and, sometimes, a hug or kisses on the cheek. It would seem to be a simple act of sportsmanship, but every so often ends up going awry.<\/p>\n

Not every contest in every sport displays that sort of civility, but it is an entrenched ritual in tennis, from kids starting out to the pros, even if the word \u201chandshake\u201d never appears in the 61-page Grand Slam rule book.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou do it in the juniors. You do it your whole life. It\u2019s part of the fabric of our sport,\u201d said Brad Gilbert, a former player and coach who is part of ESPN\u2019s cast in New York.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got to win with class,\u201d he said, \u201cand lose with dignity.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Townsend-Ostapenko back-and-forth at the US Open drew scrutiny<\/p>\n

Chris Evert, who won 18 majors in the 1970s and \u201880s, said: \u201cI never had a bad moment at the net with anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s hardly the case for everyone \u2014 as a few episodes at the U.S. Open showed.<\/p>\n

Jelena Ostapenko, the 2017 French Open champion from Latvia, got into a dustup with Taylor Townsend, the No. 1-ranked doubles player from the U.S., after clasping hands following Townsend\u2019s victory.<\/p>\n

Instead of going their separate ways, the athletes exchanged words<\/a>, with Ostapenko pointing a finger at Townsend, who is Black, and saying she has \u201cno education\u201d \u2014 something Ostapenko apologized for Saturday<\/a> via social media, explaining she meant to accuse Townsend of poor tennis etiquette. Ostapenko was upset that Townsend didn\u2019t apologize after a ball hit the net tape and went over (that\u2019s not actually a rule) and started their warmup with volleys instead of groundstrokes (not a rule, either).<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was,\u201d Venus Williams said, \u201da lot of drama.\u201d<\/p>\n

The US Open handshake between Tsitsipas and Altmaier didn\u2019t go well<\/p>\n

On Thursday, another net encounter went badly when the loser, two-time Slam finalist Stefanos Tsitsipas, let the winner, Daniel Altmaier, know he hadn\u2019t appreciated an underarm serve \u2014 which is allowed.<\/p>\n

Rather than engage, Altmaier turned his back on Tsitsipas.<\/p>\n

Then, on Saturday, two players \u2014 Jaume Munar and Zizou Bergs \u2014 got into a postmatch set-to over grunting<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the heat of the moment, you can stay stuff which you (wouldn\u2019t) normally … say (and) you regret afterward,\u201d Altmaier said, adding that he\u2019s not a fan of \u201cdiscussions at the net.\u201d<\/p>\n

Neither is 20th-seeded Jiri Lehecka, who thinks conflicts are better resolved \u201cin the locker room, behind closed doors,\u201d instead of in front of a crowd and TV audience.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not just at the US Open that there can be tension in tennis<\/p>\n

Tense moments at the net are not merely a U.S. Open phenomenon, and there\u2019s a segment of tennis social media that chronicles every half-hearted handshake.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome people don\u2019t really have a lot of things to do throughout the day, so they pay a lot of attention to this,\u201d said 21st-seeded Linda Noskova.<\/p>\n

So folks noticed when Ben Shelton and Flavio Cobolli had a back-and-forth after a match in Canada this month. Or when Danielle Collins gave Iga Swiatek an earful<\/a> about being \u201cinsincere\u201d at the Paris Olympics. Or when Taylor Fritz sarcastically told a Wimbledon opponent to \u201c have a nice flight home<\/a> \u201d after beating him in 2024.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe if I didn\u2019t like someone really, really hard, then probably \u2014 maybe \u2014 I wouldn\u2019t want to shake hands with them,\u201d said Swiatek, a six-time Grand Slam champion, \u201cbut besides that … it\u2019s good to congratulate someone if you lost.\u201d<\/p>\n

Andrea Petkovic, a 2014 French Open semifinalist who retired three years ago, enjoyed getting glimpses of the \u201cpersona of the player.\u201d<\/p>\n

She chuckled while recounting a loss to Serena Williams in Rome: \u201cAt the end, she said to me, \u2018Nice try.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

No one wants to eliminate tennis handshakes after to-dos at the US Open<\/p>\n

No one wants to see this tradition go away, although two-time major semifinalist Maria Sakkari knows there are \u201cgoing to be incidents where people don\u2019t like each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are … from different countries, different cultures,\u201d Sakkari said. \u201cIt\u2019s normal that two people are going to fall out.\u201d<\/p>\n

And not only after a match.<\/p>\n

Gilbert nearly came to blows during what he called \u201ca big tiff\u201d with David Wheaton at the 1990 Grand Slam Cup, before an official separated them. Wheaton was upset about an overrule; things escalated from there.<\/p>\n

\u201cGot pretty heated,\u201d Gilbert said, \u201cbut afterward, we still shook hands.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Howard Fendrich has been the AP\u2019s tennis writer since 2002. Find his stories here: https:\/\/apnews.com\/author\/howard-fendrich<\/a>. More AP tennis: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/tennis<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 There\u2019s been a lot of talk about the unwritten rules of tennis during Week…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":109019,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[6732,19369,30267,49,48,61823,600,61817,61824,26835,2841,61825,616,61820,58991,61822,61818,18657,3430,167,5385,82,18693,15226,23967,593,61819,11367,883,61821],"class_list":["post-109018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-andrea-petkovic","tag-ben-shelton","tag-brad-gilbert","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-chris-evert","tag-daniel-altmaier","tag-danielle-rose-collins","tag-david-wheaton","tag-flavio-cobolli","tag-general-news","tag-howard-fendrich","tag-iga-swiatek","tag-jaume-munar","tag-jelena-ostapenko","tag-jiri-lehecka","tag-linda-noskova","tag-maria-sakkari","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-serena-williams","tag-sports","tag-stefanos-tsitsipas","tag-taylor-fritz","tag-taylor-townsend","tag-tennis","tag-u-s-open-tennis-championships","tag-venus-williams","tag-world-news","tag-zizou-bergs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109018","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=109018"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109018\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/109019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}