Jelena Ostapenko has moved to address the controversy that followed her post-match comments about Taylor Townsend at the US Open. Townsend defeated Ostapenko in their match, and Ostapenko later said the American should have apologised for a net cord. That criticism escalated when Ostapenko described Townsend as having “no education” and “no class.”

Those words were interpreted by many observers, particularly in America, as carrying a racial undertone. Townsend was visibly shocked by the exchange and the story has become one of the dominant talking points of this year’s US Open, casting Ostapenko in an unfavourable light.

Ostapenko has issued a statement insisting her comment had no racial undertones and then offered additional remarks in an effort to calm the situation. “English 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,” she said. “I 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.”

Townsend has emerged as a prominent figure at the 2025 US Open in America and extended her run with a win over No 5 seed Mirra Andreeva. On court she reflected on the recent attention: “I’m really just proud that I kept the main thing the main thing,” she said. “I want to say thank you to everyone who supported me over these last 48 hours. It’s bigger than me. It’s about the message, it’s about the representation, it’s about being bold and being able to show up as yourself, and I did that.”

The episode drew comment from other high-profile players. “I think obviously it’s one of the worst things you can say to a black tennis player in a majority white sport,” who is through to the fourth round, where she will face Coco Gauff. “Granted, I know Taylor and I know how hard she’s worked and I know how smart she is, so she’s the furthest thing from uneducated or anything like that. If you are genuinely asking me about the history of Ostapenko, I don’t think that’s the craziest thing she has said. It was bad timing and the worst person she could have said that to. I don’t know if she knows the history of it in America and she will never say that again, but it’s just terrible. That was really bad.”

Ostapenko’s most recent statement acknowledges the hurt caused, but the controversy is likely to remain a defining moment from this US Open for her.

Taylor Townsend has turned a long, stop-start career into a striking return to the later stages of a major. The 29-year-old Chicago native, who won the junior Australian Open at 15 in 2012 and became the first American in 30 years to finish a season No. 1 in the girls’ rankings, beat No. 5 seed Mirra Andreeva 7-5, 6-2 to reach the round of 16.

“I wasn’t searching for anything, I wasn’t looking, trying to find answers,” Townsend said after the victory. “I had all the answers in here.”

Townsend’s path has been uneven. In 2012 the USTA told her to sit out both the US Open girls’ and women’s events because of her weight. Since then she has climbed into the Top 100 and fallen out of the Top 300 multiple times. She has reinvented herself, though, as a top-level doubles player: she is a two-time Grand Slam doubles champion and reached the mixed final last year with Donald Young. “Standing here today with Donald means the world to me because he’s been in my life forever,” she said.

Against Andreeva, Townsend kept control when her opponent threatened a second-set comeback, selecting when to attack and finishing key points. “I’m a totally different person than I was in 2019, and I think that that showed,” Townsend said of the match. “I was so confident and so sure of myself and what I was doing and how I was executing, that it didn’t matter if I hit the back fence, hit the bottom of the net, it didn’t matter. I just kept going.”

The crowd in Arthur Ashe Stadium rallied behind her after a confrontation earlier in the tournament with Jelena Ostapenko, who had criticized Townsend’s behavior during a warm-up. Townsend said she did not know if Ostapenko’s comments had “racial overtones.”—”that’s something she can speak on.” “If my son were to see this interaction, how would he view it? I think he would be proud of the way that I handled the situation.” Ostapenko issued an apology on Saturday.

Townsend now faces Barbora Krejcikova on Sunday, a player who won their only previous match in 2017. “That’s what’s really cool about tennis in these moments—you’re able to reflect and look even at the mannerisms and how I carried myself then and now, you’ll be able to see it’s a different woman.”

Jelena Ostapenko returned to social media Saturday afternoon to issue a formal apology for an on-court outburst following her straight-sets loss to Taylor Townsend at the 2025 US Open.

After the 7-5, 6-1 defeat on Wednesday, Ostapenko criticized Townsend for not acknowledging a lucky netcord and later objected to Townsend’s preference to begin their pre-match warm-up at the net. During the match Ostapenko accused Townsend of having “no class and no education” and was booed off Court 11.

That same day Ostapenko posted multiple statements on Instagram refusing to apologize for the incident and denying her widely-condemned words had racist intent against her African-American rival. “I understand how the words I used could have offended many people beyond the tennis court,” wrote Ostapenko, a former French Open champion (IG/@jelena.ostapenko).

Ostapenko had not been requested for post-match press by the media prior to her match with Townsend. She did not conduct a press conference on Wednesday, nor did she attend one for which she was requested after her defeat in the first round of women’s doubles, citing “medical reasons.”

On her Instagram stories Ostapenko offered a fuller apology: “Hi all – I wanted to apologize for some of the things I said during my second-round singles match,” Ostapenko wrote. “English 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.

“I 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.”

At her post-match press conference Townsend declined to say whether Ostapenko intentionally used microaggressive language but responded to the insults directly: “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.”