{"id":115352,"date":"2025-08-28T03:53:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-28T03:53:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/115352\/"},"modified":"2025-08-28T03:53:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-28T03:53:08","slug":"jelena-ostapenko-calls-out-disrespectful-taylor-townsend-at-us-open","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/115352\/","title":{"rendered":"Jelena Ostapenko calls out ‘disrespectful’ Taylor Townsend at US Open"},"content":{"rendered":"

Je\u013cena Ostapenko gave her side of the story after her heated exchange with Taylor Townsend<\/a> following their second-round match at the U.S. Open on Wednesday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ostapenko, 28, took issue with two separate actions by Townsend, 29, and let her know about it when the two went to shake hands after the American defeated her, 7-5, 6-1.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Townsend revealed that Ostapenko had told her she had \u201cno class\u201d and \u201cno education and to see what happens when we get outside the U.S.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"JelenaJelena Ostapenko of Latvia (R) argues with Taylor Townsend of the United States (L) following their Women\u2019s Singles Second Round match on Day Four of the 2025 US Open at USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center on August 27, 2025. Getty Images<\/p>\n

Addressing the situation in a series of Instagram Story posts, Ostapenko suggested Townsend had gone against \u201cthe rules of tennis\u201d with her actions during a net chord and when she was warming up.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cToday after the match I told my opponent that she was very disrespectful as she had a net ball in a very deciding moment and didn\u2019t say sorry, but her answer was that she doesn\u2019t have to say sorry at all,\u201d Ostapenko wrote. \u201cThere are some rules in tennis which most of the players follow and it was first time ever that this happened to me on tour. If she plays in her homeland it doesn\u2019t mean that she can behave and do whatever she wants.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the beginning of the match all players are supposed to start warm up on the baseline. The opponent came out and straight away started the warm up at then which is very disrespectful and against the rules of a tennis match.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Townsend pushed back on Ostapenko\u2019s assertions during a post-match press conference, explaining that she didn\u2019t feel that she needed an apology from Ostapenko, but didn\u2019t like the fact that someone else\u2019s \u201cexpectations\u201d were being put onto her.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you expect for someone to apologize and they don\u2019t and you get upset about it, that\u2019s your fault, not mine,\u201d Townsend said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"JelenaJelena Ostapenko of Latvia (L) argues with Taylor Townsend of the United States (R) following their Women\u2019s Singles Second Round match on Day Four of the 2025 US Open at USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center on August 27, 2025. Getty Images<\/p>\n

In a later Instagram Story post, Ostapenko said that she had received messages that she was a racist. <\/p>\n

She flatly denied that race had anything to do with the situation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI was NEVER racist in my life and I respect all nations of people in the world, for me it doesn\u2019t matter where you come from,\u201d she wrote. \u201cThere are some rules in tennis and unfortunately when the crowd is with you, you can\u2019t use it in disrespectful way to your opponent.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Townsend did say after the match she \u201cdidn\u2019t take it in that way\u201d when asked if she felt there were racial undertones to the comment, but added that it \u201chas been a stigma in our community of being not educated and all of the things when it\u2019s the furthest thing from the truth.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ostapenko has made headlines previously over volatile behavior, including last year at the Qatar Open, where she refused to shake hands with Victoria Azarenka.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Je\u013cena Ostapenko gave her side of the story after her heated exchange with Taylor Townsend following their second-round…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":115353,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[74827,99,24842,428,14687],"class_list":{"0":"post-115352","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-jelena-ostapenko","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-taylor-townsend","11":"tag-tennis","12":"tag-us-open-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115352"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115352\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/115353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}