The Jelena Ostapenko-Taylor Townsend heated exchange during the end of their US Open second-round match has escalated into accusations and denials of racism with the incident leaving a sour taste.<\/p>\n
The unseeded Townsend upset 2017 French Open champion and 25th seed Ostapenko 7-5, 6-1, but the real drama occurred at the end of the match as there was a frosty handshake and lengthy, angry exchange between the pair at the net.<\/p>\n
Townsend didn\u2019t hold back during her on-court interview<\/a> as she revealed: \u201cShe told me I have no class, I have no education, and to see what happens when we get outside the US. I\u2019m looking forward to it. I beat her in Canada outside the US. So let\u2019s see what else she has to say.\u201d<\/p>\n Ostapenko<\/a> then took to social media to give her version of the events, revealing her opponent refused to apologise for a net call, writing \u201cshe was very disrespectful as she had a net ball in a very deciding moment and didn\u2019t say sorry\u201d.<\/p>\n The incident, naturally, lit up social media and some users hit out at the Latvian and sent messages on her Instagram Status as they believe her comment that her opponent had \u201cno class, no education\u201d had racist undertones.<\/p>\n But the 28-year-old vehemently denied those allegations, writing: \u201cWow how many messages I received 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\u2019t matter where you come from.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are some rules in tennis and unfortunately when the crowd is with you you can\u2019t use it in [a] disrespectful way to your opponent.<\/p>\n \u201cUnfortunately for me, coming from such a small country I don\u2019t have that support and a chance to play in [my] homeland.<\/p>\n \u201cI always loved to play in the US and US Open, but this is the first time is approaching the match [in] this disrespectful way.\u201d<\/p>\n She later deleted the post.<\/p>\n Townsend, meanwhile, kicked off her post-match press conference by telling reporters: \u201cThis is the type of day you all live for.\u201d<\/p>\n Emma Raducanu reveals bizarre US Open plan that leaves Tim Henman speechless<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Iga Swiatek\u2019s \u2018shocked\u2019 admission as she\u2019s asked about Serena Williams, Maria Sharapova reunion<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n The 29-year-old insisted there was no \u201cprevious beef on my side\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cNo, there\u2019s never been any history. I mean, I don\u2019t know how she feels about Me, but there\u2019s no, you know, beef on my side,\u201d she said before going on to repeat Ostapenko\u2019s comments.<\/p>\n \u201cYou know, she told me that I have no education, no class, and to see what happens if we play each other outside of the US,\u201d the American explained.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd I said, you know, I\u2019m excited. Bring it. You know, I\u2019ve never been the one to back down from anything like that, but I just thought that it was really interesting. You know, she was playing amazing in the first set and, you know, couldn\u2019t miss. And, you know, I had my head down and head in my strings and just tried to continue to just plug away.<\/p>\n She continued: \u201cYou know, still is no beef. But again, like you guys saw, I didn\u2019t back down because you\u2019re not gonna insult me, especially after I carried myself a certain type of way with nothing but respect.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd if I show respect to you, I expect respect as well. And that\u2019s just the fact of the matter. And I think that that\u2019s tennis, right? You know, no matter what\u2019s going on, it\u2019s me versus you. But at the end of the day, we have to respect each other and respect what happens out on the court.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s competition. So, you know, it was unfortunate, but it\u2019s something I could put on my TikTok.\u201d<\/p>\n World No 1 Aryna Sabalenka<\/a> was also asked her opinion on the incident as she revealed she tried to calm Ostapenko down.<\/p>\n \u201cI actually spoke to Jelena after the match, but during our conversation, I didn\u2019t know what had happened. Well, I have to say that she\u2019s nice. She just sometimes can lose control. She has some things in life to face and some struggles.<\/p>\n \u201cI was just trying to help her\u2026 I don\u2019t know\u2026 not like face it in a more mature way, but I was just trying to help her to settle down. I was just someone she could speak to and just let it go.<\/p>\n \u201cI think sometimes she just lose control over her emotions, which is pretty tough and I really hope that one day she will figure it out herself and she will handle it much better.\u201d<\/p>\n The post Ostapenko-Townsend update: Latvian hits back at \u2018racist\u2019 accusations, Sabalenka\u2019s calming attempt<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Jelena Ostapenko-Taylor Townsend heated exchange during the end of their US Open second-round match has escalated into accusations and denials of racism with the incident leaving a sour taste. The unseeded Townsend upset 2017 French Open champion and 25th seed Ostapenko 7-5, 6-1, but the real drama occurred at the end of the match […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/942","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=942"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/942\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}US Open News<\/h2>\n