Former six-time Grand Slam doubles winner Rennae Stubbs declared Jelena Ostapenko's "uneducated" comment directed at Taylor Townsend "coded," and highlighted it wasn't the proper use of words even if the Latvian meant it the way she later claimed.
After Ostapenko confronted Townsend in a very tense way following a 5-7 1-6 loss in the US Open second round, it went from bad to worse for the Latvian after it was revealed that she told her she had "no education" and "no class." Since Townsend is a Black American player, it didn't take long before the 2017 French Open champion started receiving racist accusations.
For two days, the 28-year-old was receiving constant backlash - not only from the public and the media, but also from some of her colleagues, who called out her behavior. The former world No. 5 responded by issuing a message on her Instagram Story, in which she directly apologized and added: "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."
Stubbs weighs in on Ostapenko calling Townsend 'uneducated'
"Look, you know, I'm not going to sit here as a white woman and try to describe what it must feel like and pretend that I have any idea, but that word of saying 'you're uneducated' really feels coded. Whether Ostapenko meant it that way, because she was talking about tennis etiquette," the Australian tennis legend said on The Rennae Stubbs Tennis Podcast.
Ostapenko had an issue with Townsend warming up at the net and apparently not apologizing over a net cord. Stubbs noted that everyone knows the American starts her warmup by instantly going to the net, and that the American didn't win the point in question directly via a net cord, but after hitting a winner.
"So saying it's uneducated because it's not a tennis-educated or a tennis-etiquette thing... You can't move around that, this is dumb," Stubbs added.
