NEW YORK (AP) — Jelena Ostapenko apologized on social media on Saturday when he told Taylor Townsend that she was “uneducated” after losing to her at the U.S. Open earlier this week and explained that she intends to call Townsend to solicit Ostapenko’s deemed poor tennis aristocrat.
Ostapenko, the 2017 French Open champion in Latvia, wrote in an article that English is not her native language, “So when I say education, I’m just talking about what I believe in (is) tennis etiquette, but I understand how the words I use make many people offend many people outside the tennis court.”
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Townsend said she didn’t know how to apologize when she started the press conference after Saturday’s doubles win. She laughed as she read Ostapenko’s post aloud while listening to the reporter.
“I’m glad she did it, she apologized,” Townsend said, adding that she didn’t hear Ostapenko in person. “Good. That’s cool. At the end of the day, I think it’s a learning class for her. …It’s nice that she went to social media and apologized. But, I really hope that from now on, she can do it, for example, hey, you can’t control people, but focus on yourself, which is better.”
After an episode on Wednesday, when two players shook hands online, stretching back and forth, a reporter asked Townsend, who is black, if she thought what Ostapenko said on the court was racial.
Townsend replied: “I didn’t accept it in this way, but you know, it’s a stigma in our community, that is, “not educated” and everything, when it’s the furthest fact.”
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Ostapenko wrote on social media that day that she did not apologize after she discovered Townsend was helped by net rope at some point. Ostapenko also complained that Townsend started warming up before the game, rather than returning to baseline.
Townsend will play in the fourth singles match on Sunday.
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