Naomi Osaka is currently trying to return to her championship-winning ways at the US Open. Still, she also had time to defend Taylor Townsend following some ridiculous remarks from sore loser Jelena Ostapenko.
US Open champion Naomi Osaka was asked about Ostapenko’s trash comments about Taylor Townsend following their heated discussion after Townsend sent her home on Wednesday, August 27, at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.
Ostapenko criticized Townsend for her “net-cord etiquette” following her 7-5, 6-1 second-round loss to Townsend, claiming she had “no class” and “no education.”
Like a coward, the professional tennis player from Latvia didn’t attend a post-match press conference the following night, instead opting to share her reasoning for her behavior on social media via Instagram Stories.
“Today, after the match, I told my opponent that she was very disrespectful as she had a net ball in a very deciding moment and didn’t say sorry, but her argument was that she doesn’t have to say sorry at all,” she wrote.
Ostapenko denied being a racist, but at this point, it’s kinda hard for her to beat the allegations following her behavior after the match.
Naomi Osaka Says Ostapenko’s Comments Towards Townsend Were “Really Bad”
Naomi Osaka was about Ostapenko’s comments after her 6-3, 6-1 second-victory over Hailey Baptiste on Thursday, August 28, and she didn’t hold back.
“I mean, it’s really difficult to say,” Osaka said. “I think obviously it’s one of the worst things you can say to a Black tennis player in a majority White sport. And 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.
“But if you’re like genuinely asking me about the history of Ostapenko, I don’t think that’s the craziest thing she’s said. I’m going to be honest. I think it’s ill-timing and the worst person you could have ever said it to. And I don’t know if she knows the history of it in America. But I know she’s never going to say that ever again in her life. But, yeah, I mean, it was just terrible. Like, that’s just really bad.”
No lies detected.
Salute to Naomi Osaka for keeping real.
