NEW YORK (AP) — The postmatch back-and-forth between Taylor Townsend and Jelena Ostapenko remained a topic of conversation at the U.S. Open 24 hours later on Thursday — but not for Ostapenko, who skipped speaking at a news conference, citing “medical reasons.”
Townsend, an American who is ranked No. 1 in doubles, and Ostapenko, a Latvian who won the 2017 French Open in singles, were back on court in separate doubles matches on Thursday. Townsend and her partner, Katerina Siniakova, won theirs; Ostapenko and Barbora Krejcikova, lost theirs.
On Wednesday, after Townsend’s straight-set victory over Ostapenko in singles, they had an extended argument after shaking hands up at the net — and Townsend, who is Black, said Ostapenko called her “uneducated” while wagging a finger.
“Anyone and everyone that I’ve spoken to who saw anything, they obviously said that it was disrespectful,” Townsend said. “Even the mannerisms of her hand pointing at my face like I’m a child, and just the things that she was saying, everyone said that it was bad behavior.”
Ostapenko said afterward on social media that she was bothered by two things Townsend did: begin the warmup by volleying instead of hitting shots from the baseline — which might be unusual, but is something the American often does and is within the rules — and not apologizing after winning a point with help from the ball going off the net’s tape.
Townsend found those critiques “hypocritical,” she said Thursday.
“I mean, she’s not known to have sportsmanship and have the best code of conduct,” Townsend said, “so to try and call me out on something that you don’t even do yourself is crazy.”
When the subject of Townsend-Ostapenko initially was raised at Naomi Osaka’s news conference over Hailey Baptiste in the second round Thursday, the four-time Grand Slam champion said: “I saw that part, obviously. It’s been on the TV, like, every 15 minutes.”
“Obviously, it’s one of the worst things you can say to a Black tennis player in a majority white sport,” said Osaka, whose father is from Haiti and mother is from Japan. “And granted, I know Taylor, and I know how hard she’s worked, and I know how smart she is, so she’s the furthest thing from uneducated or anything like that.”
After winning her second-round match Thursday night, Coco Gauff described the episode as “a heat-of-the-moment thing. I think Jelena was probably feeling emotions after she lost.”
“I do think that that shouldn’t have been said, regardless of how you’re feeling. ... Knowing Taylor personally, she’s the opposite of that. She’s one of the nicest people that I’ve ever met,” Gauff said. “Whenever I’ve had a tough moment on court, she’s texting me, making sure, checking in on how I am. So I really hate to see that.”
As for Ostapenko, in particular, who has gotten into kerfuffles with opponents before, Osaka said: “I don’t think that’s the craziest thing she’s said. I’m going to be honest. I think it’s ill timing and the worst person you could have ever said it to. And I don’t know if (Ostapenko) knows the history of it in America. But I know she’s never going to say that ever again in her life. ... It was just terrible. Like, that’s just really bad.”
Townsend was asked Wednesday whether she thought there were racial undertones to Ostapenko’s 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.”
Looking back a day later, Townsend said she had received a lot of support.
“I felt like I handled the situation very gracefully, and I’m really proud of the way that I handled it,” Townsend said Thursday. “I didn’t allow the situation to take me out of my character or to lose my integrity as a person, and that’s what really matters.”
Ostapenko posted on social media Wednesday that she had received many messages “that I am a racist.”
“I was NEVER racist in my life and I respect all nations of people in the world. For me it doesn’t matter where you come from,” she wrote.
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AP Sports Writer Stephen Whyno contributed to this report.
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