English
Spanish
French
German
Italian
Portuguese
Russian
Chinese (Simplified)
Hindi
Japanese
Taylor Townsend wasn’t having it.
A courtside video captured a portion of the tense exchange between Townsend and Jelena Ostapenko after the American star rolled to a 7-5, 6-1 victory in the second round of the U.S. Open Wednesday.
“You can learn how to take a loss better. Thank you so much. Great job, great playing,” Townsend said with what appeared to be a sarcastic tone and a fake smile.
The video seemed to catch the end of the interaction, which started with Ostapenko confronting Townsend.
“It’s competition, people get upset when they lose,” Townsend told ESPN on the court right after the match. “Some people say bad things. She told me I have no class, no education and to see what happens when we get outside the U.S. I am looking forward to it. I beat her in Canada … so let’s see what else she has to say.”
Ostapenko said on Instagram that the issue was over a net cord during the match — in which she claims Townsend did not apologize for the lucky break — and her opponent’s actions during warmups.
Aryna Sabalenka revealed she spoke with Ostapenko after the match and said she believes the Latvian star is dealing with off-court issues that possibly affected her reaction.
“Today 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’t say sorry, but her answer was that she doesn’t have to say sorry at all,” Ostapenko wrote.
“There 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’t mean that she can behave and do whatever she wants. In 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 warmup at then which is very disrespectful and against the rules of a tennis match.”
The ugly interaction took away from what was a significant win for the 29-year-old Townsend, who had failed to get out of the first round of the first three Grand Slams this year.
Townsend is back on the court Thursday as one half of the top-seeded women’s doubles team alongside Katerina Siniakova.
She then will face a stiff challenge in her third-round singles match against fifth-seeded Russian Mirra Andreeva, who lost a total of five games in her first two wins at Flushing Meadows.
