Tennis champion demands simple dignity after drowning in sea of outrage and accusations

In a fiery conclusion to her second-round U.S. Open Tennis match, Taylor Townsend’s victory over Jelena Ostapenko was overshadowed by a heated confrontation after the match and public comments from both athletes. The incident started during the usual handshake at the net. It quickly turned into a verbal argument and drew boos from the crowd.

The main cause of the initial conflict, according to a report from The Athletic, was a shot that Townsend hit which touched the top of the net before landing in. This kind of shot, called a net cord, is often followed by an apology from the player who hit it as a sign of good sportsmanship. Ostapenko apparently was upset because Townsend did not apologize, and a tense exchange followed.

In a video shared by ESPN, Townsend could be seen saying “No, I don’t have to say sorry,” while Ostapenko gestured and pointed her finger. At one point, with the sound of the crowd’s boos drowning out their voices, Ostapenko was seen telling Townsend, “You have no education” three times. On court microphones reportedly recorded Townsend’s reply, advising Ostapenko to “take the L,” which is a reference to accepting a loss.

A heated exchange between Townsend and Ostapenko during the U.S. Open leads to booes from crowd

After the on-court drama, Townsend talked about the situation in her post-match interview and a later press conference. She said, “People get upset when they lose. Some people say bad things.” The American athlete also said that Ostapenko had told her she had “no class, I have no education and to see what happens when we get outside the U.S., so I’m looking forward to it. I mean, I beat her in Canada, outside the U.S. I beat her in New York [inside] the U.S., so let’s see what else she has to say.”

Townsend made it clear that it was something out of the moment, and not a real feud. She said, “I chalk it up to being upset and, you know, she pulled out all the stops to try and break the momentum. Sometimes people do that, but it is what it is. There’s no beef. But again, like you guys saw, I didn’t back down because you’re not going to insult me, especially after I carried myself a certain type of way with nothing but respect. If I show respect to you, I expect respect as well. That’s just the fact of the matter.”

For her part, Ostapenko used social media to share her side of the story in a series of online posts. The Latvian player described Townsend’s actions as “very disrespectful,” pointing to the missing apology for the net cord shot at an important moment in the match. She said that this was a break from common tennis manners and the first time something like this had ever happened to her on tour.

Ostapenko also complained about Townsend’s pre-match warm-up routine, saying that it broke the rules. She said that Townsend’s “answer was that she doesn’t have to say sorry at all. There are some rules of 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.”

Townsend later responded to the warm-up complaint during her press conference, saying, “This isn’t the first, second, third, fourth time I’ve played Jelena, so if she’s complaining about how I warm up, that’s fine. Everyone knows this isn’t — this is something that I do. You can go back to the time that I played my first-ever pro tennis match, and I’ve been doing this since even juniors. It wasn’t anything targeted towards her to try and take her off of her game or her rhythm. You know, I just was doing my thing.”

This was a pretty intense exchange, but Tennis matches tend to get heated in many ways, and some can inspire movies like Challengers. For instance, once there was a stalker who followed a star to their match. However, it’s important that we remember that Tennis players can get heated, and words can be exchanged when opinions differ. However, it seems like the players are going back to focusing on their next matches.