Jelena Ostapenko was at the centre of another heated US Open exchange on Monday, confronting an opposing coach after reaching the women’s doubles quarterfinals with Taiwanese partner Hsieh Su-wei.
The fourth seeds beat Australian-Taiwanese pair Maya Joint and Chan Hao-ching 6-4 6-4, but tempers flared after Ostapenko took exception to the behaviour of their opponents’ coach.
Hsieh had approached the umpire during a changeover and Ostapenko pointed toward the opposing team’s coach, urging the official to intervene.
The Latvian said the coach had been clapping and shouting
after their mistakes, and sarcastically praising their shots in
Chinese, which Hsieh translated for her.
“They do this because they know they cannot beat us,”
Ostapenko told the umpire, calling the behaviour “very
disrespectful” and asking for the presence of a Chinese
translator.
After the umpire agreed to deal with the situation, the pair
returned to the court and turned up the heat to seal the
straight-sets win.
Ostapenko then celebrated by roaring toward the opposing box
while Hsieh and Chan did not shake hands at the end of the fiery
encounter.
Ostapenko, the 2017 French Open singles champion, has been
involved in several on-court disputes.
At last year’s U.S. Open she accused Taylor Townsend of
having “no class” and “no education” in a verbal confrontation
with the American.
Ostapenko later apologised, saying her choice of words
during the exchange had been misunderstood because English was
not her first language.
Source: Khaleej Times