Jelena Ostapenko has made a move to try and end the storm around her bust-up with Taylor Townsend, as she took a step to try and end a story that has refused to die down.<\/p>\n
Townsend beat Ostapenko at the US Open, but the loser in their battle made her point at the end of the match as she suggested the American should have apologised for a net cord.<\/p>\n
Her gripe manifested itself into an ugly tirade, as she suggested Townsend has \u201cno education\u201d and \u201cno class\u201d.<\/p>\n
Those comments were viewed by many observers, especially in America, as having a racial undertone, with Townsend clearly shocked the manner of abuse coming at her.<\/p>\n
The story has gathered momentum in recent days and has become of the big talking points of this year\u2019s US Open, with Ostapenko cast as the villain in what was an ugly story.<\/p>\n
Ostapenko-Townsend update: Latvian hits back at \u2018racist\u2019 accusations, Sabalenka\u2019s calming attempt<\/a><\/p>\n WATCH: Taylor Townsend reveals threatening swipe from Jelena Ostapenko after US Open clash<\/a><\/p>\n Ostapenko issued a statement insisting her comment has no racial undertones, but she has now offered up fresh comments to try and defuse a story that has developed a life of its own.<\/p>\n \u201cEnglish is not my native language so when I said education, I was speaking only about what I believe as tennis etiquette, but I understand how the words I used could have offended many people beyond the tennis court,\u201d said Ostapenko.<\/p>\n \u201cI appreciate the support as I continue to learn and grow as a person and a tennis player. Goodbye New York and I look forward to being back next year.\u201d<\/p>\n Townsend has become the face of the 2025 US Open in America and she continued her impressive run in the singles tournament with a thrilling win against No 5 seed Mirra Andreeva.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m really just proud that I kept the main thing the main thing,\u201d said the 29-year-old.<\/p>\n \u201cI want to say thank you to everyone who supported me over these last 48 hours. It\u2019s bigger than me. It\u2019s about the message, it\u2019s about the representation, it\u2019s about being bold and being able to show up as yourself, and I did that.\u201d<\/p>\n This story will haunt Ostapenko, especially when players with a profile such as Naomi Osaka intervened with such pointed comments.<\/p>\n \u201cI think obviously it\u2019s one of the worst things you can say to a black tennis player in a majority white sport,\u201d who is through to the fourth round, where she will face Coco Gauff.<\/p>\n \u201cGranted, I know Taylor and I know how hard she\u2019s worked and I know how smart she is, so she\u2019s the furthest thing from uneducated or anything like that.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you are genuinely asking me about the history of Ostapenko, I don\u2019t think that\u2019s the craziest thing she has said. It was bad timing and the worst person she could have said that to.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know if she knows the history of it in America and she will never say that again, but it\u2019s just terrible. That was really bad.\u201d<\/p>\n Ostapenko\u2019s latest statement confirms she appreciates the hurt her words caused, but her punishment may be that this story will be as big a part of her tennis legacy as anything she achieves on court.<\/p>\n READ NEXT: Naomi Osaka enters Jelena Ostapenko racism row with pointed comments<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n The post Jelena Ostapenko had to break her silence amid racism storm \u2013 but the damage can\u2019t be repaired<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Jelena Ostapenko has made a move to try and end the storm around her bust-up with Taylor Townsend, as she took a step to try and end a story that has refused to die down. Townsend beat Ostapenko at the US Open, but the loser in their battle made her point at the end of […]<\/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-956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/956","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=956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/956\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}