On Wednesday night, Taylor Townsend, the American doubles world No. 1, scored a convincing 7-5, 6-1 victory over Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko. Rather than shake hands and go their separate ways, the duo got into a full on war of words.
As Townsend approached Ostapenko for the handshake, the Latvian accused her of breaking an unwritten rule: not apologizing after a net cord, when the ball clips the top of the net but still dribbles over. Ostapenko insisted Townsend should have said sorry. Townsend replied that she didn’t have to. The exchange escalated, with Ostapenko appearing to repeat, “you have no education,” several times before Townsend snapped back that she should “learn how to take a loss better.”
Townsend then turned to the crowd, soaking in their cheers as Ostapenko packed up her things and left in a car almost immediately. In her post-match interview, Townsend shrugged at the drama. Competition is heated, she said, and people say things when they lose. Still, she made it clear she wasn’t going to let anyone disrespect her on her home court.
For Townsend, the words carried weight. As a Black woman, she said she recognized the sting of being called “uneducated,” a stereotype long used to diminish people in her community. But she also stressed that the best rebuttal wasn’t a shouting match — it was the scoreboard. “I let my racquet talk,” she said. “She’s packed up and gone. I’m still here.”
Ostapenko, meanwhile, doubled down on social media, insisting she wasn’t being racist, just calling out poor sportsmanship. She argued that most players apologize after a net cord, and suggested Townsend was egging on the home crowd. She even went so far as to critique Townsend’s warm-up routine, saying she started at the net instead of the baseline, which Ostapenko claimed was disrespectful. Townsend brushed that off as laughable. “I’ve warmed up that way since juniors,” she said. “It wasn’t about her.”
Ostapenko, famously combustible, lived up to her reputation. The irony is that the match itself was lopsided. Townsend handled her business on the court and now moves on to the third round, where she’ll face either Anastasia Potapova or No. 5 seed Mirra Andreeva.
As Townsend put it bluntly, “She’s gone. I’m here. That’s what matters.”
