(August 27, 2925) FLUSHING, NY – No, 1 doubles player Taylor Townsend and No. 25 singles player Jelena Ostapenko got into an argument on the Court 11 sideline right after Townsend won her second-round match 7-5, 6-1 on Wednesday late afternoon.
Townsend, an American who is ranked No. 1 in doubles, said of Ostapenko, a Latvian, who won the 2017 French Open, told her she has “no class” and “no education.”
A reporter asked Townsend, who is Black, whether she thought there were racial undertones to those comments.
“I didn’t take it in that way, but also, you know, 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,” Townsend responded.
“So whether it had racial undertones or not, that’s something she can speak on,” Townsend said. “The only thing that I’m worried about right now is continuing to move forward through this tournament.”
Q. I do have to ask you straight away about what happened at the handshake there. Perhaps you can talk us through that. Also, have you had any history with Jelena? I know you’ve played each other in singles and multiple times in doubles. Perhaps you could just talk us through it.
TAYLOR TOWNSEND: Like you said, we’ve played many times before. I played her in Toronto last year in singles. We’ve played probably before that. Most recently in the semifinals of Wimbledon in doubles.
No, there’s never been any history. I don’t know how she feels about me, but there’s no beef on my side. She told me I have no education, no class, and to see what happens if we play each other outside of the U.S. I said, I’m excited, bring it.
I’ve never been the one to back down from anything like that. I just thought that it was really interesting. She was playing amazing in the first set and couldn’t miss. I had my head down and head in my strings and just tried to just continue to plug away.
That’s what I kept telling myself. Keep fighting. Hopefully you’ll get a break and you’ll get an opportunity to try and implement some of your strategy, but she was kind of taking the racquet out of my hands. I mean, was hitting amazing shots. Serve plus one off of my returns, playing really great tennis.
Sometimes that happens. In my head I was, like, if this is one of those matches, because she’s that type of player, it’s just one of those matches. But I wasn’t disappointed in the first set of anything that I was doing. I wasn’t doing anything wrong. She was just playing really well.
Then when the tables turned, it all of a sudden became an issue. You know, so I chalked it up to competition. 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.
Still, 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.
I think that that’s tennis, right? You know no matter what’s going on, it’s me versus you, but at the end of the day we have to respect each other and respect what happens out on the court. It’s competition.
So, you know, it was unfortunate, but, you know, it’s something I can put on my TikTok (laughing).
