Ostapenko Has Problems With Her Opponents

Big problems occurred in the 2025 US Open second round match between Townsend and Ostapenko. I had picked Townsend to win this one because Ostapenko, after winning Stuttgart—which I reported on, where she played unbelievable tennis—cooled off quite a bit in her performances and couldn’t find that same level of tennis again. Unfortunately, because Ostapenko is an incredibly talented player, she can defeat many big names. Her head-to-head against Iga is truly unbelievable. She has not lost to Iga yet, and she is undefeated against her, with a 6–0 record.

However, I picked Taylor to win this match because she has been playing exceptionally well lately, both in singles and doubles. She reached the number one ranking in doubles, which is truly remarkable. I enjoy it when players compete in both singles and doubles. I think doubles needs exactly that—more singles players competing in it.

Early Match

It started right away because Taylor Townsend, possibly since she is a doubles player as well, didn’t hit groundstrokes in the warm-up. She started right at the net. I don’t know if she does this in every match, but she certainly did it against Ostapenko. And I think that got Ostapenko upset right from the get-go.

Ostapenko was playing well in this first set. She was up 5–3, serving for the set at 5–4. She got broken to 15. And in the first point of the 5-all game, Townsend hits a let cord. Ostapenko runs it down, and Townsend hits a lob over Ostapenko. And then there is a stare-down. Not long after, there was a stare-down, and Townsend did not apologize; instead, she turned around and returned to her baseline, and so did Ostapenko.

Handshake

But in any case, I didn’t see any drama for the remainder of the match. Townsend gained a lot of confidence from winning the first set and played exceptional tennis, going on to win the second set 6–1. But then at the net, Taylor Townsend was the first of the two players to say “good match,” and she reached out her hand. So Taylor did absolutely nothing wrong in this match.

Ostapenko could have just shaken her hand and that would have been it, but she decided to tell her that she should have apologized for the let cord. Taylor then responded with, “I don’t have to do anything.” And they continued to argue for a little bit, and I couldn’t really hear what they were saying.

Social Media

This has blown up all over social media and is receiving a lot of views. And again, Taylor did absolutely nothing wrong. She is correct that she doesn’t have to apologize for a let cord. And we have to acknowledge that Taylor was the first one to say “good match” when they approached each other at the net. Usually, these confrontations after the match always end badly because, let’s face it, there’s a lot of ego involved in tennis, and it’s unlikely that a player is going to back down, especially right after the match when the emotions are at their highest.

Ostapenko Behavior

Now, let me discuss a few things regarding Ostapenko. She has a history of this type of behavior. There’s a channel called Sabine Lisicki Fans with three S’s at the end, and they make compilations of WTA footage. This channel was shut down several times due to copyright violations, but it’s back up, and there is the ultimate Ostapenko compilation that you can watch. It’s a 17-minute video, and you will see things that are quite frankly entertaining.

Let me share one of them. When Ostapenko plays somebody who has the home crowd behind them, she’ll do this move where she shuts her ears. It’s a quirky thing to do, and it’s typical. She also argues with the umpires. There was one tournament on grass—I can’t recall which one it was exactly—but Ostapenko wanted to have a lines judge removed, and she told the umpire, “Could you be so kind and remove her, please? I can’t stand looking at her face. I’m going to go crazy.”

In another grass-court tournament, Ostapenko was doing absolutely insane commands to the opponent’s coach. And then when the umpire confronted her and told her, “Listen, you can’t scream at him like that. “ This is not cool,” Ostapenko says, “Yes, I can.” I’m just doing a ‘Come on.’”

Hatred

Ostapenko clearly dislikes her opponents. She also plays a lot of doubles. And there’s one clip in that compilation where she has an easy putaway volley in doubles, and she absolutely destroys Elise Mertens with a volley. And you can tell that this was on purpose for sure.

Ostapenko is also regarded as one of the worst call challengers in the history of tennis. She will request Hawkeye on the most ridiculous calls, and she has been asked whether she trusts the line calling system; she clearly doesn’t.

Now, to top it all off, I’ve talked many times about the poor handshakes on the WTA tour. Out of all players, Ostapenko has one of the worst handshakes in the history of the WTA. So this Townsend incident is just another episode of Ostapenko’s long career of displaying—let’s call it—childish behavior.

Unwritten Laws

Taylor did absolutely nothing wrong in this match, and the blame lies entirely with Ostapenko. However, I will need to discuss the unwritten laws of tennis. And I’m a strong advocate of adhering to these unwritten rules. For example, when you hit a let cord, you’re supposed to apologize to your opponent. Most players do this, but some players don’t.

Why should the player say sorry? Well, while this is certainly true—you’re not sad that you won the point, you’re pumped and thrilled to have won the point—but still, the unwritten laws of tennis have to be followed. You should apologize when you hit a let cord, or if you hit a hole in a court and the ball bounces weirdly, or if you hit the line on a clay court. You apologize. These are the unwritten laws of tennis.

And the one unwritten law that most players don’t think about is the actual shaking of the hands. This is not required. You don’t have to shake the opponent’s hand. And just like you don’t mean it when you say sorry after hitting a let cord, you don’t necessarily want to shake your opponent’s hand, especially in a heated match or if you’re really upset. What you want to do is just walk straight to your bench and get off the court, but you still go up to the net and shake the opponent’s hand. Why? Because these are the unwritten laws of tennis.

Final Thoughts

So, is Ostapenko just a big proponent of these unwritten laws of tennis? No, I don’t think so. I think she was just salty that she lost this match, because if you look at her history, this is not the first time or the last time that we’re going to see Ostapenko drama.

One last thing… shout out to Ms Heidel!