Jelena Ostapenko has once again been dominating headlines at this US Open, but for all the wrong reasons.
After all, her words and actions after losing to Taylor Townsend have drawn widespread scrutiny, with many rushing to lambast the Latvian for her thoughtless and potentially damaging comments about the American.
Branding her ‘disrespectful’ and ‘uneducated’, the racial undertones of her words, whether intended or not, have caused concern amongst the tennis community.
Even Naomi Osaka blasted Ostapenko’s comments, claiming: “It’s one of the worst things you can say to a black tennis player in a majority white sport.”
Pundit Catherine Whitaker would use the Japanese star’s words when summing up the flashpoint, whilst also revealing why we are yet to hear from Ostapenko since.
Jelena Ostapenko snubs US Open press conference
Speaking on The Tennis Podcast, she revealed that the 29-year-old had been requested by the US Open media following her exit from the ladies’ doubles draw.
After all, following the singles match, the lack of pre-match requests meant she was allowed to walk free following her tirade.
But, on this occasion, many scampered to see if she might come out to face the music. She did not.
Whitaker has now explained why: “And just finally, in doubles news today, Jelena Ostapenko and Barbora Krejčíková lost their opening match, and after a long delay, word eventually filtered down that Jelena Ostapenko, despite being requested to come and speak to the media, would not be coming to press due to illness.
“She has also deleted her final Instagram story from yesterday, the one which explicitly referenced the accusations of racism. She hasn’t said anything further on Instagram. I think that sort of sequence of events kind of speaks for itself.
“One person who did speak on it today, though, and lots of different players were asked about it, including Naomi Osaka, there was kind of a little pause before she answered the question. I sense, kind of deciding, do I pull the trigger here?
“And she did in an extremely gentle, measured way, but with her economical use of language, she did pull the trigger, and she said: ’It’s one of the worst things you can say to a black tennis player in a majority white sport. If I think it’s ill timing, and the worst person you could ever said it to. And I don’t know if Jelena Ostapenko knows the history of it in America.’”
How did Taylor Townsend react to Jelena Ostapenko’s comments?
Naturally, everyone was keen to hear what Taylor Townsend’s reaction to Ostapenko’s comments would be in her post-match press conference.
After all, she gave a fiery on-court interview where she revelled in the bitterness of her opponent’s defeat; deservedly so.
However, she was far more measured, having had time to consider the event.
She admitted: “You’re not going to disrespect me in my face. You know, I’m a firm believer, and I’m the type of person where, if you have something to say, you feel some type of way, you say it to my face and we can talk about it, and we can hash it out.
“You can feel any type of way that you want to, but again, I just don’t think that you should push your expectations and how you feel about something on other people and try to make someone else feel bad about that, because you feel like they should conduct themselves in a certain type of way.”
