{"id":99270,"date":"2025-08-28T19:04:03","date_gmt":"2025-08-28T19:04:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/99270\/"},"modified":"2025-08-28T19:04:03","modified_gmt":"2025-08-28T19:04:03","slug":"no-class-taylor-townsend-lifts-lid-on-explosive-us-open-row-with-jelena-ostapenko","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/99270\/","title":{"rendered":"‘No class’: Taylor Townsend lifts lid on explosive US Open row with Jelena Ostapenko"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Jelena<\/p>\n

Tempers boiled over during the pair’s second-round match at Flushing Meadows.<\/p>\n

Picture:
\nGetty
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

American tennis player Taylor Townsend has claimed Jelena Ostapenko told her she has “no class” and “no education” during a fiery post-match exchange at the US Open.<\/p>\n

Tempers boiled over during the pair’s second round match at Flushing Meadows, culminating in a finger-pointing row at the side of the court following Townsend’s 7-5 6-1 victory.<\/p>\n

Ostapenko accused her opponent, 29, of not apologising after a net cord went in her favour and the former French Open champion let her feelings known during a frosty handshake at the net.<\/p>\n

Asked about the exchange during her on-court interview, Townsend said: “She told me I have no class, I have no education and to see what happens when we get outside the US. I’m looking forward to it. I beat her in Canada outside the US so let’s see what else she has to say.<\/p>\n

“It’s competition, people get upset when they lose and some people say bad things.”<\/p>\n

Read more: Manchester United stunned by League Two Grimsby in Carabao Cup<\/a><\/p>\n

Read more: Emma Raducanu races into US Open third round with dominant display<\/a><\/p>\n

Ostapenko, 28, left the court to a chorus of boos and later accused her opponent of being “disrespectful” and criticised her conduct during the warm-up.<\/p>\n

On-court microphones picked up Townsend telling the 25th seed to “take the L [loss]” at the end of the match, before the world number one doubles player whipped up her home crowd into a frenzy by wildly celebrating with them.<\/p>\n

In a now-deleted social media post, Ostapenko said: “She was very disrespectful as she had a net ball in a very deciding moment and didn’t say sorry, but her answer was that she doesn’t have to say sorry at all.<\/p>\n

“If she plays in her homeland, it doesn’t mean that she can behave and do whatever she wants.”<\/p>\n

Later in Townsend’s press conference, she was asked if there were racial undertones to the Latvian’s on-court remarks, to which she responded: “I’m very proud as a black woman being out here representing myself and representing us and our culture.<\/p>\n

\"Taylor<\/p>\n

Townsend whipped her home crowd into a frenzy with wild celebrations.<\/p>\n

Picture:
\nGetty
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

“I make sure that I do everything that I can to be the best representation possible every time that I step on the court and even off the court.<\/p>\n

“So I can’t speak on how she felt about it. That’s something that you’re going to have to ask her. I didn’t take it in that way, but also, that has been a stigma in our community of being not educated and all of the things when it’s the furthest thing from the truth.”<\/p>\n

Rejecting the claims of racism, Ostapenko said on a now-deleted post on her Instagram story: “Wow how many messages I received that I am a racist. I was NEVER racist in my life and I respect all nations of people in the world, for me it doesn’t matter where you come from.<\/p>\n

“There are some rules in tennis and unfortunately when the crowd is with you, you can’t use it in disrespectful way to your opponent.<\/p>\n

“Unfortunately for me coming from such a small country I don’t have that huge support and a chance to play in homeland. I always loved to play in the US and US Open but this is the first time someone is approaching the match this disrespectful way.”<\/p>\n

Elsewhere on day four, defending champion Aryna Sabalenka was given a test by Polina Kudermetova in the night session but came through 7-6 (4) 6-2 and will next face former finalist Leylah Fernandez.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tempers boiled over during the pair’s second-round match at Flushing Meadows. Picture: Getty American tennis player Taylor Townsend…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":99271,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[101,118,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-99270","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-tennis","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99270"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99270\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}