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Tennis star Jelena Ostapenko lashed out at her opponent, Taylor Townsend, accusing her of having "no class and no education," after she took a second-round loss at the US Open.
On Wednesday (August 27), Townsend defeated the No. 25 seed Ostapenko 7-5, 6-1 on Court 11 in New York. As the two met at the net, Ostapenko declined Townsend's handshake, instead insulting her opponent, who she accused of being "very disrespectful" during the match, per Tennis.com.
“No class. No education," Ostapenko told Townsend, garnering gasps and boos from the crowd.
Townsend walked away from the confrontation calmly, addressing the incident during a post-match interview.
“It’s competition. People get upset when they lose,” Townsend 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.”
“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," she added.
Ostapenko took to Instagram to defend her behavior, noting that Townsend didn't offer her an apology after she had a net cord winner, a ball that clipped the net and dropped over, during the match.
“She had a net ball in a very deciding moment and didn’t say sorry,” Ostapenko wrote. “There are some rules in tennis which most of the players follow and it was the first time ever that this happened to me on tour.”
Ostapenko claimed that Townsend broke another tennis norm by staring her pre-match warm-up at the net. Ostapenko accused her opponent of unsportsmanlike behavior, though Townsend noted it’s something she’s always done.
In a follow-up post, Ostapenko also denied that her "no class, no education" comment had any racial undertones.
Townsend brushed off the situation as "comical."
“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. 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 years," she said. “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.”
“The thing that I'm the most proud of is that I let my racquet talk,” Townsend added.
Townsend, who is also the world’s top-ranked doubles player, will move on to the third round of singles at the US Open, where she'll face No. 5 seed Mirra Andreeva next.
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