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Jelena Ostapenko (left) accused Taylor Townsend of being disrespectful during their match [Clive Brunskill\/Getty Images via AFP]\u2018Very disrespectful\u2019<\/p>\nOstapenko unleashed a verbal volley at her American opponent for being disrespectful during their second-round match.<\/p>\n
Published On 28 Aug 202528 Aug 2025<\/p>\n
Jelena Ostapenko accused Taylor Townsend of lacking \u201cclass\u201d during a furious on-court confrontation between the two players after their second-round match at the US Open, where the unseeded American defeated the 25th-seeded Ostapenko 7-5, 6-1.<\/p>\n
Ostapenko spoke sharply to Townsend during a cold handshake at the net at the end of the match on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Townsend at one point said \u201cI don\u2019t have to do anything\u201d to Ostapenko, who repeatedly pointed at her opponent. The American eventually walked away and shook the chair umpire\u2019s hand and proceeded to whip the crowd into a frenzy.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe told me I have no education, no class, and to see what happens if we play each other outside of the US,\u201d Townsend told reporters after the match.<\/p>\n
\u201cI said, I\u2019m excited, bring it. I\u2019ve never been the one to back down from anything like that. I just thought that it was really interesting.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no beef. But again, like you guys saw, I didn\u2019t back down because you\u2019re not going to insult me, especially after I carried myself a certain type of way with nothing but respect.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I show respect to you, I expect respect as well. That\u2019s just the fact of the matter \u2026 it was unfortunate, but, you know, it\u2019s something I can put on my TikTok.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe thing I\u2019m the most proud of is that I let my racket talk. Because ultimately, I\u2019m the one here sitting in front of you guys moving on to the next round, getting the next cheque, moving on \u2026 and that\u2019s what\u2019s the most important.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s packed up and she\u2019s gone. I\u2019m here, and that\u2019s the only thing that matters.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jelena Ostapenko (left) accused Taylor Townsend of being disrespectful during their match [Clive Brunskill\/Getty Images via AFP]\u2018Very disrespectful\u2019<\/p>\n
Ostapenko said in a post on Instagram that she had been angered by Townsend\u2019s failure to acknowledge a net cord in her favour during the match.<\/p>\n
The 28-year-old also accused Townsend of breaching etiquette by starting her pre-match warm-up at the net.<\/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,\u201d Ostapenko wrote.<\/p>\n
\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.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf she plays in her homeland it doesn\u2019t mean that she can behave and do whatever she wants.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ostapenko\u2019s explanation failed to impress Townsend when she was informed of the Latvian\u2019s remarks.<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean, it\u2019s sports,\u201d Townsend said. \u201cI feel like people have gotten a little bit soft. I\u2019m not going to lie. It\u2019s sports. People talk trash. You know, people say things. Whatever, people get mad.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone has a right to feel how they feel. The problem is, don\u2019t push your expectations on me. If you expect for someone to apologise and they don\u2019t and you get upset about it, that\u2019s your fault, not mine.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ostapenko received words of support from world number one Aryna Sabalenka, who revealed after her late-night match that she had spoken with the Latvian following the incident.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have to say that she\u2019s nice,\u201d Sabalenka said of Ostapenko. \u201cJust sometimes she can lose control over her emotions, which is pretty tough.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m pretty sure, looking back, she\u2019s not happy with her behaviour.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ostapenko unleashed a verbal volley at her American opponent for being disrespectful during their second-round match. Published On…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":116305,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[3,1079,99,428,21,1209],"class_list":{"0":"post-116304","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-news","9":"tag-sport","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-tennis","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-us-canada"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116304","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=116304"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116304\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}